


To Chase A Criminal

by EMMegs



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crime AU, F/M, Organized Crime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 20:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2283885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EMMegs/pseuds/EMMegs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was a criminal mastermind, who always managed to avoid capture. She was the undercover agent Interpol sent in to dig up his dirtiest secrets. What actually ended up happening between them was definitely not on either of their agendas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Professionalism

**Author's Note:**

> Worthy of note that I actually have no clue how Interpol or crime circuits are run whatsoever. So it's probably super inaccurate but that's not really the important part of the story so I think it's okay?? 
> 
> All characters belong to Bisco Hatori. This plotline, however, is mine.

_I need a secretary_ ; he reminded himself when the annoyance at these women who were practically throwing themselves at his feet just to know him began to seep in. Yes he was the CEO of one of the biggest Medical companies in the world  _and a bachelor_ but that did not give them an excuse to throw propriety out the window. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he waved the one he was currently looking at away. If it weren't for the sake of Tamaki's health, he would just make his second-in-command take on all the duties of his secretary as well. However, the man couldn't handle that at the moment with his mother being sick and his wife pregnant.

Tachibana allowed the next person in and he nearly sighed in relief when he realized that it was a male who looked rather determined. He sat up a bit more and raised an eyebrow at him. "Well?" he asked impatiently, "What's your name? Why do you want to work for me?"

He jumped a little, startled, and stuck out his hand as he introduced himself. "Hiro Fusao, Ohtori-san." Kyoya nodded his head and shook his hand across the desk, immediately detecting the ill-fitting suit and how it seemed to dwarf the small man as well as the shape and size of his hands. He stepped back a bit and sat in the chair across from the Ohtori without being prompted. "Frankly, I need the money. My father's ill and the medical bills don't pay themselves. It also seems to be a good starting point for life-long career."

"You wish to be a businessman, Fusao-san?" Kyoya questioned lightly, ignoring the niggling feeling in the back of his head that he was being lied to.

"Possibly. I'm in law school at the moment."

Yet another lie. He again, ignored it. If this man -  _woman_ \- had the audacity to lie to him with close to no detection other than the fact that she was tugging on her shirt cuffs, he might just want to hire her… But not as a man. "No, no. Start over. And tell the truth this time."

"Ohtori-san?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not fooled by the disguise, Fusao-san, nor the lies. You are 100 percent female. Though I'm impressed by your audacity, I like to get to know my  _real_ employees, not what they try to appear to be."

"H-How did you know?"

"Your posture suggests female. As does the way you walk with your toes hitting the ground first and remaining slightly raised - suggesting that you're used to wearing heels. Your hands are soft, which could be the result of excellent care but they're also tiny for a man, with small knuckles and slim fingers, more commonly found on a woman. Your height is 3 inches below that of the average of a male, centered more around the average height of a female. Your face holds distinct feminine features that no amount of makeup can cover up or fake. Although your apparent lacking in the chest area suggests you may be male, this evidence along with the fact that your hips stand out much more than a man's would - being wider and more defined - this leads me to conclude that you are  _in fact_ female." He raised a single eyebrow as she let out a breath of amazement. "I can also tell that your father is not ill due to the fact that there are no bags under your eyes from lack of sleep due to worrying and your hands are not dry or raw from increased washing, as I'm sure you would be doing if you were worried about him or visiting the hospital frequently. You may or may not have gone to law school but are not there presently."

She shook her head in amazement and fessed up to lying. "Okay, okay. You caught me. My name is Haruhi Fusao, but I really do want to start a career in business. And I have quite an extensive knowledge of law that could prove useful to you as your secretary." He nodded. He had a team of lawyers that he had hand-picked for their ability to look the other way on occasion and simultaneously keep the authorities off his trail. She would not need to know any of the workings of his  _other_ business, however, so it was perfectly fine if she thought her abilities in law were useful.

"Why lie about your gender?"

"I heard that you were getting sick of females coming in and throwing themselves at you. Decided to give you something different to judge." Kyoya leaned forward, interested. She was considerate then. Yes, an excellent trait for an oblivious secretary to have. He held out a hand for her resume and she handed it to him wordlessly, biting her lip nervously. He leaned back and skimmed through it, noting that she'd previously worked for a local law firm and had assisted in managing a small business. He glanced up at her over his glasses as she looked around the room with curiosity, then at his phone screen, typing her name quickly with one hand into a text to Tamaki and a simple request to check into her.

The reply came two minutes later while he was still reading through her papers.

_She's good. Worked for a law firm and a small business in Tokyo. Owns a small apartment in the same complex as her father. Went to Tokyo University for her law degree. No signs of Haninozuka or police ties, though I'd check with Fuyumi to ensure that she isn't government._

_Thank you, Tamaki_ , he sent back before locking his phone up again and sitting up in his chair.

"Tachibana?" he called, watching the door crack open a bit in response. "Dismiss the others. I've found my new secretary." Haruhi grinned and stood quickly. "You'll start tomorrow morning," he told her, "10 o'clock sharp. I do not tolerate tardiness Miss Fusao."

"Yessir," she said quickly, bowing low in respect and smiling widely at him again. Kyoya nodded his head in response and showed her to the door. Once gone, he strode back to his desk silently and picked his phone up off his desk, dialing a number known only to select few.

"Fuyumi? Yes, yes, good to hear from you too. However, I need to have a chat with your husband, if possible. I have inquiries about my new secretary…"

~o~

When she appeared to work the next day, he watched her path to his office carefully on the surveillance system, looking for anything suspicious. Fuyumi and his brother-in-law had stated that there wasn't anything suspicious about her record, government or otherwise.

He didn't quite believe it.

He didn't want to find out that she was snooping in things that she shouldn't be. She was secretary purely for KOMSS. Normally he wouldn't hire anyone that he doubted the loyalty of, but it would be made clear to her that any attempt to step outside her boundaries would result in immediate dismissal.

He turned off the screen in front of him as she stepped into his office, bowing in respect once. "Good morning, Ohtori-sama," she stated quietly with a smile.

He let a small smirk settle on his face as he nodded at her in greeting. "And you too, Fusao-san." He motioned to the chair across from him and watched her sit with observant eyes. He handed her a couple of manila folders full of paperwork. "The first is your contract. I expect you to read it thoroughly and sign it. Speak to me directly about any misgivings or inconsistencies that you encounter. The second is my daily schedule for the next two months which I will also give you an electronic copy of. I expect you to keep track of what meetings I have when and who with and remind me at least an hour beforehand. The third is a list of expected pick-ups and drop-offs of shipments throughout the world. I'll expect you to call and make sure that each one is being made at the appropriate time throughout the week. Is that clear?"

She nodded, looking a bit bewildered at the stack that he had given her. He stood and strode leisurely to his office door, waiting for her to stumble after him. He showed her to her desk, directly outside his soundproof office doors. It was the only desk within 30 feet of Kyoya's office on that floor. Upon it sat a computer screen, a phone, a small filing system, and other various office supplies. Against the walls behind it were three five-foot filing cabinets, each with labels clearly printed on them.

"This is your working quarters, anything you might need should be here, if not, inform me and I'll set about getting it immediately. There should be a laptop in the middle right drawer that wirelessly connects to your computer screen for better multitasking. A cell phone is in the top right. Both are synced with my schedule and my office computer." He pulled open the top drawer as he spoke, picking up the phone effortlessly and handing it to her, contacts open. "You'll see any professional contacts that you might need here. My cell and home phone as well as email are listed. Various translators and business partners and clients are also there, should you need to contact them. I ask that in my absence, you contact Tamaki Suoh, as he is my second-in-command and will be able to answer to any problems or questions that you might have.

"If Tamaki is unreachable, as it happens occasionally, his wife Lucienne should be able to track him down for you. If both of them are unreachable, then please call my brother, Akito, or sister, Fuyumi. In a medical emergency, Akito should be contacted immediately. He's my doctor-on-call. Do you have any questions?" She stared at him, dumbfounded for a moment and he started to reconsider hiring her. "I will give you a written copy of all these instructions for your sake," he finally sighed. She nodded, smiling keenly. He turned and began to reenter his office but stopped and turned back questioningly. "I forgot to ask. How many languages do you speak?"

"Four," she replied quickly, "Japanese, English, French and Chinese."

"Good. In the case that one of your contacts does not speak any of the four, then there are translators programmed into your phone whom you can forward the call to. They can take care of it. You should be primarily dealing with Europe, China, Japan, and North America though, so those four should suffice."

She nodded mutely again. He graced her with a small smile and ducked back into his office with one last instruction, "You may take breaks as you need as long as you get your work for the day done. There's a kitchen and lounge through the door across from you."

~o~

Haruhi stared at the closed door for a moment then pulled the cellphone that had been vibrating nearly nonstop since her boss had begun instructing her. A variety of text messages lay in wait for her.

_Haruhi! You should figure out the sync password for us! We might be able to hack into his system that way! - KH_

_Send a copy of the shipments too! We might be able to pull something from them. - HH_

_Tamaki Suoh and Lucienne Achille are on our list! - KH_

_And Akito Ohtori is on the list of potential employees! - HH_

She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Practically balancing two jobs at the same time had not been what she was picturing 3 years ago when she had joined Interpol. She sent back a single message to both of her associates that said,  _Yes, yes, okay, fine._

She'd been in a partial daze when she'd gotten this assignment, not having expected to be put undercover. Although, she guessed that it might have been because she had been the one to put in the effort to gather information on Ohtori in the first place. Though she had been disappointed to find that there was not yet enough to prosecute.

He was a crime boss. A criminal mastermind who covered his tracks far too well for the local police to even catch a sniff of him. Thought to be leading one of the biggest organized crime conglomerates in all of Japan - possibly even all of Asia.

And he was her new boss for all appearance purposes. He couldn't be trusted. And she was sure that he didn't trust her in the slightest, despite the careful planning that her team had gone through to ensure that her Interpol status would slip past his notice. She suspected that he had government contacts of some kind that allowed him to remain below the radar. It was Haruhi's job to discover those contacts and gather enough evidence against him to allow for prosecution.

It was a big project. One that would probably take months - maybe even years.

But Haruhi was determined to finish it.

She sighed and buckled down for at least a few months hard work. Her eyes skimmed the contract in her hands, noting the stipulations and requirements of her employment. She'd be given a monthly salary of 513,120 yen at a rate of 2,138 yen per hour – an extremely generous offer considering that most made less than 1,000 yen an hour. She was allowed 6 weeks paid vacation a year, to be worked out with Kyoya at least two weeks ahead of time. She had full health benefits. In all, it seemed like a very generous job offer.

Then again, he was a wealthy crime boss.

She went to fill in all her details and sign when she found that they had already been filled out for her to her exact residence and emergency contacts. She almost started in surprise at that, but then narrowed her eyes. Of course he would have researched every little detail about her prior to giving her the contract. She narrowed her eyes, making sure everything was correct before signing - making sure that her brain converted her last name from her real one to her alias. She checked the clock then Kyoya's schedule. It was almost 11 and he had a noon appointment. She sighed and picked herself up from her seat, gathering her signed contract in hand and strode to the office door.

She stopped, not completely sure whether to knock or go in unannounced. Finally she steeled her nerves and raised a hand, knocking three times. She heard him call for her admittance and opened the door. He looked up at her from his computer screen and spoke in a low voice into his phone before looking at her expectantly. "Yes, Fusao-san?"

"I finished looking over my contract and I'd like to remind you that you have an appointment at noon with your brother at the Lotus Hotel."

"Ah yes. I thought there was something I was forgetting. Thank you, Fusao-san." He reached across the desk and took the papers that she held out to him, placing them in an empty spot on his desk. He said something in rapid German into the phone still in his hand that she didn't catch nor understood. His attention was placed back on her a minute later. "Will you check on the shipment of emergency medical supplies to Berlin for me? It seems that Vanden-san does not trust my judgment." She nodded. "You should be able to call the Japanese shipping office downstairs and ask them to track down the ship for you."

"Yes, Ohtori-sama." She tugged her new phone out of her pocket and looked up the number in her contacts, all while under her boss's observant gaze.

"KOMS Shipping office," a voice answered promptly after the second ring.

"Ah," she said nervously, "Ohtori-sama asked me to check up on the shipment of emergency medical supplies to Berlin. Track down the location of the shipment, please."

"One moment, Fusao-san." Haruhi started at the use of her name, then rolled her eyes inwardly. And  _of course_ all the important departments of the building would be given the name of the CEO's new secretary. She waited, making brief eye contact with Kyoya as she chewed on her lower lip. "Fusao-san?"

"Yes?"

"I've determined that the ship was just off the coast of Senegal about an hour ago and should be arriving at Hamburg, Germany in roughly 8 hours."

"Thank you very much," Haruhi said cheerily, hanging up. "It should be arriving in about 8 hours, Ohtori-sama. It's currently just off the coast of Senegal."

"Thank you, Fusao-san," he said quickly before relaying what she assumed was that very information back into his phone in German. He continued his conversation for a moment or two, then hung up. Kyoya picked up the contract that she had handed him only minutes before. "Everything is to your standards and all your information is correct?"

"Yes, Ohtori-sama," she said brightly, giving him a small smile.

"Good. If you have any questions at any time don't hesitate to-"

"KYOOOOOYAAAAAAA!" Haruhi jumped as the loud voice rang into Kyoya's office. The man himself just rolled his eyes and sighed, putting two fingers to his temple and rubbing gently. A blonde man ran in in a blur not moments after the exclamation, jumping with energetic excitement. " _Mon ami! Mon ami!_  Great news! Lucienne tracked down that certain bothersome person!"

To her surprise, a smirk came to her employer's mouth at this news. "That is good news, Tamaki. Now settle down or you'll frighten off my lovely new secretary."

The blonde froze, his head turning toward her slowly, brilliant blue eyes locking onto her chocolate brown ones. He studied her for a moment then broke out in a grin, holding his hand out for a shake. "You must be Haruhi! Kyoya told me he was hiring you to be his secretary. I'm Tamaki Suoh, his best friend and business associate."

"N-Nice to meet you," she stuttered, taking his hand and pumping it twice. To her surprise he pulled her closer to him, pressing his lips to the back of her hand. Unwittingly, she felt her face heat up.

"Tamaki," Kyoya barked, "Enough with your ridiculous flirting."

The blonde looked like something between horrified and flustered. "I'm not flirting! Why would you think that? Lucienne would kill me!"

"I think you're so used to babbling like an idiot that you don't even realize when you're doing it anymore," Kyoya deadpanned, looking amused despite his irritation. Haruhi looked between them, not exactly sure what she should be feeling or doing. Tamaki looked struck by Kyoya's statement and sat heavily in a chair, mumbling to himself.

"Err… Ohtori-sama? Should I get you anything?"

Kyoya rubbed his temples lightly and turned his gaze from the blonde to his secretary. "Coffee please, Fusao-san. Black for me, two sugars for Tamaki. And call my brother and inform him that I may be late for our lunch, will you?"

"Of course," she muttered, casting an unsure glance at the blonde who was now staring at her with eyes that seemed to be haunted.

Kyoya turned back to his associate as she strode to the door, just barely catching the beginnings of their conversation, "You're so formal, Kyoya."

"Well, she  _is_  my secretary and I  _am_ her employer."

"But you're not nearly as formal with me."

"Tamaki, you're my business part-" his voice faded as she shut the door behind her, going to the kitchen. She started the coffee for her boss then pulled her cellphone from her pocket. She flipped through her contacts until she came upon his brother, Yuiichi's number. Her finger pressed send absentmindedly while she hummed to herself, waiting for the espresso machine to finish its work.

"Moshi, moshi, Yuiichi Ohtori speaking."

"Hello," she muttered, not exactly sure about this entire secretary thing. "This is your brother's secretary calling to inform you that Kyoya-sama might be late to your lunch meeting due to the unannounced arrival of Tamaki Suoh."

She heard him chuckle. "Alright. Thank you. What's your name again?"

"Haruhi Fusao."

"Thank you, Fusao-san."

"No problem, Ohtori-san."

She sighed as she slipped her work phone back into her pocket, switching it with her personal one. Hikaru and Kaoru had not sent her anything else, nor had her father texted to check up on her, surprisingly. She tapped her pointer finger on the top of her phone for a moment then unlocked it, sending a quick text to the twins.

_Email me everything you have on Tamaki Suoh, Lucienne Achille, and Yuiichi Ohtori as soon as you can. -HF_

The answer came as she poured the two freshly made cups of coffee. One word.

_Done._

She smiled a bit and, coffee and sugar in hand, made her way back to the office, entering without knocking this time. "I'm not sure exactly how much sugar, two sugars is for Suoh-sama, so I brought the whole bowl," she said by way of explanation before pausing and staring at them. Her boss looked mildly irritated in a position with the blonde that made it look like he'd been cornered into his chair. She cleared her throat a bit, attempting to cover up how flustered she was. Kyoya rolled his eyes and Tamaki pulled back, bounding over and taking the coffee and sugar from her graciously.

"Thank you, Haruhi." She scowled at his friendly use of her first name. "And there is no need to be so formal. You may call me Tamaki."

She fought the urge to break out in a biting comeback and instead muttered, "If you wish, Tamaki-sama."

To her surprise and general misfortune, he frowned and shook his head. "No… Not even sama… Just Tamaki." She studied his features for a moment with narrowed eyes. Blonde hair, blue eyes, actually quite handsome.

And definitely not fully Japanese.

"Ah. I get it. You're so annoying because you're foreign and don't understand."

He blanched, shrinking in the closest chair and sobbing to himself. Kyoya snorted from his seat, looking mildly amused now as she handed him his coffee. "Thank you, Fusao-san. No matter what idiotic things that moron says, he holds some truth in carrying on to foreign habits. If you're comfortable with it, you may call me Kyoya. Many of my other employees do anyway."

She started in surprise, not having expected him to be swayed so easily. She glanced at the moping blonde with some kind of reserved wonder filling her brain. What could he possibly have said to change Kyoya Ohtori's mind? She didn't even take into account the position she'd found them in with Tamaki's form bending over Kyoya's bored expression with determination. "Okay… Kyoya-sama." He nodded in respect of her choice of honorific. "You… May call me Haruhi if you want."

He, again, nodded with a smirk on his lips as he sipped his coffee. "You may go on your lunch break now, Haruhi-san. Tamaki and I have things to discuss before I need to go to lunch with Yuiichi-niisan."

She nodded, scuttling toward the door.

She caught no snatches of conversation as she left this time.

~o~

She was beginning to get used to her daily duties as the Ohtori's secretary as well as Tamaki's antics - he came by almost  _every day_ completely unannounced and irritated Kyoya to the point that he had to threaten to throw him out of the building permanently - after a week on the job. However, nothing could have prepared her for her next surprise.

She was reading through her email on her personal phone, which consisted of the files of Tamaki, his wife, and Kyoya's eldest brother when a young boy - couldn't have been much older than 16 or so - walked up to her and smiled politely. Following him was a taller, older man, whom she assumed to be his body guard.

There was something odd about the way that the blonde boy smiled; something almost menacing. She locked her phone slowly and sat up a bit. "Kyoya-sama is in a meeting currently," she stated, although he technically wasn't - it was merely Tamaki again.

"You must be Haru-chan. I heard  _tons_ about you," the boy said with a glint in his eye. Haruhi stared at him with mixed apprehension. There was something not right here. And who the hell had told him he could call her 'Haru-chan'? "Takashi and I are going to go in and see Kyo-chan. And you aren't going to stop us. The secretaries never do."

She blanched as he began to walk toward her boss's doors and stood hurriedly, striding to block the doors. The blonde gave her a menacing glare. "Let me at least introduce you," she said weakly, sweat dripping down the side of her face in her anxiety. She knocked three times and opened the door. Kyoya looked at her in irritation, obviously having stopped mid-sentence. "Kyoya-sama, there are-"

She was pushed aside gently by the taller gentleman that had accompanied the boy. A flash of rage registered in Kyoya's eyes as he gazed at the blonde and stood quickly. "Haninozuka," he growled, "You're not supposed to come here. This is  _my_ area and you know it."

"You blocked my cake shipments, what else was I supposed to do?" the boy replied sweetly, with an underlying deadly tone. Tamaki stared at the two of them, eyes darting between his best friend and apparent business rival.

"Err… I'm just going to-" Haruhi muttered, beginning to back out.

"How rude of me, I didn't introduce myself," the blonde said, turning to her with a bright grin. He bowed and murmured, "Mitsukuni Haninozuka. But you may call me Hunny." He then gestured to his companion, "Takashi Morinozuka, better known as Mori. I'd love it if you stayed for a chat with us."

"Hunny," Kyoya growled warningly. "She's not a part of this."

"But she's your secretary. Surely she must know somet-"

"She has work to do," the Ohtori cut off sharply, eyes narrowing at the Haninozuka behind his glasses.

"Good. Then you can lift the blockade on my cake shipments and I'll be on my merry way, leaving you all to get back to work."

Haruhi listened intently, storing the names of these two who were apparently rivals of some kind with the Ohtori mastermind. Kyoya gritted his teeth and nodded, looking as though it killed him to do that small gesture. "Fine," he snapped, "Fine. You really should be waning off them. Having that kind of addiction is never good for business."

Hunny laughed. "Didn't think you would care. My business doing badly means good things for you. Besides, you needn't worry about me. Takashi looks after things quite well."

"As I've heard," Kyoya commented drily. "Get out of my office, Haninozuka. Your cakes will be delivered within the hour. Threaten my secretary or come in  _my_ building uninvited again and I'll have security  _take care_ of you." She heard the very obvious threat in her boss's voice. And malice was so prominent that she wondered what the teenager could have done in the past to trigger Kyoya's wrath.

"Thank you, Kyo-chan," he said, his smile brightening immediately. He turned to her and Tamaki and added, "Nice to see you again, Tama-chan. And good to meet you, Haru-chan." He nodded his head once and retreated.

Once the door had closed, Kyoya sank back into his seat with a growl. "Tamaki," he stated.

"Got it," the blonde murmured, concentrating on his phone screen.

"Dare I even ask?" Haruhi muttered to herself.

"That was Mitsukuni Haninozuka, Haruhi-san. My business rival."

"He ships in the medical department too?" she asked.

Kyoya pondered the best way to answer that for a moment then shook his head slowly. "No… He deals in international real estate but recently has been pressing into my family's area of expertise by buying prime land for medical facilities. I believe he does so just to get on my nerves and to say that he has a rival." She stored that helpful information in her brain to bring up later with the twins. He looked up at her from his computer screen. "I should have told you about them sooner. However, I didn't think they'd have the gall to enter my office building unannounced. I apologize if they threatened or made you feel uncomfortable. Should you see them again, warn me first, then security."

She nodded, surprised first by his open explanation and secondly by his apology on their behalves. Then a thought struck. "Wait… He runs a multi-million dollar corporation? Isn't he like… 16?"

Kyoya chuckled and Tamaki broke out in laughter, the first sound that he had made since the Haninozuka had entered the room. "No, Haruhi-san… He gets that a lot, but no. He's 30."

She stared at him, not quite believing him. "You're kidding."

"No. He's older than all three of us. And possibly one of the most dangerous men you'll ever meet."

"Dangerous how?"

"You don't want to know, Haruhi," Tamaki stated gravely. Kyoya nodded his head in agreement and glanced at his watch.

"I'll be taking my lunch now. Tamaki shall accompany me. Look after things, will you, Haruhi-san?"

She nodded and watched the man stand and pull on his suit jacket, which had been previously draped over the back of his chair. He strode from the room briskly with Tamaki behind her. He waited at the door until she had left then turned and locked it with a key from his pocket. She stared between him and the newly locked door a single thought flitting through her mind.

_What is he hiding?_

~o~

She was completely used to answering phone calls, making them, and cancelling/creating appointments for Kyoya on his behalf by the middle of her third week. She had not had any contact with Hikaru and Kaoru since her request for Tamaki, Lucienne, and Akito's files. No particularly huge red flags had come up anywhere. She worked tirelessly, almost forgetting at times that she was supposed to be obtaining information on Kyoya instead of working for him.

The Ohtori ran a surprisingly tight ship. If she hadn't known better, she would have assumed that he was just like any other businessman. Nothing he did ever seemed suspicious to anyone but her. There were small things that she noticed Tamaki doing, but she chocked that up her his regular personality that Kyoya had stopped trying to control.

After bringing up a problem with the syncing of her computer with her boss's, she was able to obtain the sync password, which she passed on to the twins discreetly. She knew that if they found anything noteworthy then they would tell her.

On her fourth week at KOMSS as Kyoya Ohtori's secretary, she still had no contact from Interpol. But she was not worried. When Tamaki ran in looking flustered and worried, she didn't even blink as he rushed past her desk and through the door into Kyoya's office, leaving the door cracked open.

"Kyoya!" the blonde was yelling breathlessly. "Lucienne-! Baby-! My wife-!"

"Calm down, Tamaki," Kyoya soothed carefully, glancing out the door to his secretary and giving her a careful nod.  _Akito?_ He mouthed to her. She nodded quickly once and went about finding her cellphone to contact the older Ohtori. "Tell me what happened."

"I got a call only minutes ago saying that she was in the hospital." The Ohtori hissed under his breath at the mention of a hospital.

"And what did they say was wrong?"

"I don't know… She was injured in some kind of accident. Something possibly wrong with the baby."

_"Akito Ohtori speaking,"_ the voice on the other end of the phone she was holding while intently listening to Kyoya and Tamaki's conversation said.

"Yes, this is Haruhi Fusao, your brother's secretary. You're apparently needed to treat Lucienne Suoh. Who has some sort of injury."

_"Anything wrong with the pregnancy?"_

"Possibly."

"Kyoya!" Tamaki wailed from the office, "My wife might be  _dying_!"

"Haruhi-san's calling Akito as we speak. Which hospital was she taken to?"

_"Where is Lucienne-san?"_

"Reginald General, I think," Tamaki's distressed voice chimed. Kyoya swore under his breath again, to which Tamaki defended himself with, "It was the closest one!"

"Go to her. I'll follow shortly with Akito," Kyoya instructed calmly, pushing the blonde out the door.

_"Haruhi-san?"_

"Reginald General Hospital," she told him shortly, "I believe Kyoya-sama is coming to pick you up and Tamaki-sama is heading that way as well."

"Tell him 5 minutes," Kyoya muttered to her distractedly. He frowned as he searched his pockets in an attempt to find his keys. She scooped his extra set of car keys out of her desk and placed them in his hand effortlessly. He stared at them a moment then nodded his head at her in thanks.

"5 minutes, Akito-san."

_"Thank you, Haruhi-san."_ The line went dead and she lowered her phone from her ear.

"Good luck, Kyoya-sama," she said quietly as he started away from her. "I hope Lucienne-san is okay."

"For Tamaki's sake, so do I," he mumbled back to her as he strode away, straight into the elevator where Tamaki was bouncing with worry and apprehension. The doors slid shut and suddenly, she was alone.

Alone with the open door of Kyoya's office staring at her.

She took a glance around as if to insure that no one was watching her then slipped into the office. As normal, his desk was impeccably organized with all files sorted into different piles both ready to be looked at and ready to be filed away. She thumbed through the folder tabs, looking for something she might be able to use. She came up with a folder labeled:  _Haruhi Fusao_  and looked on curiously. He had a whole file on her? It didn't look that big but she pulled it out anyway and scanned through it, curiosity getting the better of her.

Her picture accompanied her basic information (none of which was her  _real_ information but her cover story, thankfully). Underneath that initial basics page was more detailed information including a list of her favorite things. Habits. Tendencies. Least favorite things. Personality traits. His own handwritten notes were included which she read through quickly.

_Does not exhibit particularly suspicious behavior but is still odd in her own way._

_Is not deterred in the slightest by Tamaki or other interruptions._

_Checked out with Fuyumi that she is not government-affiliated. Nor is she locally affiliated._

_Handled Haninozuka fairly well despite obvious intimidation._

_Extremely competent in her work._

Other positive comments were scattered throughout the document. Nothing that said that she had given herself away however, so she set it aside. Two other folders in the same stack were labeled  _Interpol_ and  _Tokyo PD._ Scowling; she picked them up and gave them a quick leaf-through. To her surprise she found several sheets of paper in the Interpol folder that recorded every instance of his or Tamaki's name in their files. She found one sheet that had short bits on Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin - both of which were part of her team. She found herself scowling slightly. Where had he found information on the twins?

The police folder contained similar things to the Interpol one. Different officer's profiles - could these possibly be cops working on the Ohtori's bankroll? She took note of their names for the twins to look up. She was about to move into the folder labeled  _Statements_ when a voice surprised her.

"What do you think you're doing?" Haruhi whirled around to find herself face-to-face with a woman. She had long brown hair, stunning brown eyes, and appeared to be only a few inches taller than her. "Well? What are you doing in here?"

She bowed quickly, not sure who this person was but if she appeared in Kyoya's office unannounced then she must be important. "I'm merely checking on things for Kyoya-sama."

"Is that so?" The woman appeared skeptical. "Who are you to check on things for Kyoya and where is he?"

"I'm his secretary, Haruhi Fusao. Kyoya-sama was called away by Tamaki on emergency regarding Lucienne Suoh." The woman raised an eyebrow. "May I enquire as to who you are?"

"Fuyumi Shido," she answered promptly, standing a little straighter. "Kyoya is my little brother. However, if he's away at the moment then when he returns I would ask that you tell him I stopped by and request that he contact me as soon as possible."

"Of course, Shido-san."

"Thank you, Haruhi-chan." And with a smile, Fuyumi turned and walked back the way she had come, leaving Haruhi alone in the office once more. The brunette drew in a shuddering breath. That had been close. And there were still no guarantees that Kyoya would not hear of this. She took a moment to breathe and continued looking through the files on her boss' desk.

Halfway through an uninteresting, apparently irrelevant document in the  _Statements_ folder, her cell phone going off startled her. Normally, she would have put it on silent before entering the KOMSS office building, but even her memory slipped occasionally. She fumbled to pull the thing out of her pocket and look at the caller ID.

She sucked in a breath and answered it quickly. "Yes?"

"Haruhi? Command wants to talk to you," Kaoru's voice chimed distractedly. She could hear the clicking of a keyboard's keys and figured that he was researching something or another on his computer while talking to her. "But first, I have some things to share with you. Are you alone?"

"Would I have answered if I wasn't?"

"Right," the younger Hitachiin sighed. "First of all, Lucienne Achille has been admitted to Reginald General Hospital with a sprained right ankle and a false alarm of early labor. This is the first time since 1998 that she's been seen by any kind of doctor on record, which is strange considering that she's currently 7 months pregnant. Also, Kyoya Ohtori and Tamaki Suoh are with her - the first time they've been seen in a non-Ohtori hospital since the birth of Mai Ohtori - Yuiichi Ohtori's daughter. This tells us that there is likely a doctor or two working either entirely or partially on the Ohtori's payroll." She found it unsurprising that Tamaki had been freaking out over a sprained ankle and false early labor. He did seem to exaggerate things quite a bit. However, this also meant that Kyoya would probably be back soon.

"Akito," Haruhi muttered. "It's Akito Ohtori."

"You're sure?"

"He's always called in for medical emergencies. When Tamaki-san came in freaking out about his wife, the first thing Kyoya-sama did was tell me to call Akito-san."

"Alright."

"What else?"

"The sync came up with minimal information; I'll email what we found anyway. Anything else you've found to look up would be helpful. We're getting a little low on research topics."

Haruhi nodded her head like he could see her and murmured a couple names, "Hyuu Hama, Kaede Harahachi, Hajime Fumihiro and Kira Yoshiaki are all police officers with Tokyo PD that Kyoya-sama has on file for some reason. He has a small bit on the two of you as well."

"What?" Hikaru's voice this time answered sharply. "Why us?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. My guess is that he's attempting to track people who are trying to track him, which put the two of you on his radar. Watch it. He keeps a meticulous record of all the times that his or Tamaki's name is so much as mentioned in Interpol and Tokyo PD files. I'd love to know how he gets ahold of them."

"Probably some special contact," Kaoru commented offhand. His fingers sounded like they had taken on a mind of their own with the speed of the tapping she was hearing. Probably both of them were looking up profiles as furiously as they could to look for some connection between them and the Ohtori mastermind. "Anything else before we hand you over to Command?"

"Fuyumi Shido. Maiden name is probably Ohtori as she is Kyoya-sama's older sister. Also Mitsukuni Haninozuka and Takashi Morinozuka are possible rivals of his that we might be able to take down as well."

"Got it. We'll email you our findings," Kaoru said and Hikaru chimed in for the final goodbye before the line was transferred to Command's in France. The gruff voice of Savon Matisse answered the call and she drew a breath at talking to the intimidating senior officer.

"Fujioka," he said in French.

She answered back in the same language. "Matisse."

"Word has it you're working hard."

"I try, sir."

"And is anything coming from it?"

"Slowly. It's a slow process. I might be here for months or years, but I'm willing to do it."

"Good. I have some advice that will help you speed up your investigation, if you are up to it."

"Oh? What would that be, sir?"

"Get to know him personally. Do whatever you can to get close to him both professionally and personally. If you have to sleep with him to do that and are comfortable with it, then do it. Just find a way to get as close to him as you possibly can."

She frowned slightly. Perhaps sleeping with him would be going a bit far, though getting to know him on a personal level could have its benefits to the investigation as well. She nodded as she mulled it over in her head. "I'll try my best, sir."

"You do that, Fujioka." The line went dead and she breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Now all she had to think about was how she was going to get the youngest Ohtori to  _want_ to know her more personally. Because surely, he wouldn't do anything that he didn't  _want_ to do. And she kind of knew about his criminal activity, so what exactly did that say about  _him_? She shook her head and decided to leave the office for later, seeing as Kyoya had just sent her a text saying to postpone his next appointment by an hour. She sighed under her breath. Being personal was supposedly easy. However, when dealing with a partially paranoid, closed-off, criminal mastermind, things would be a lot more difficult.

If only she knew.


	2. Getting Personal

Haruhi began to make it a habit of showing her boss small acts of kindness - which she considered to be flirting but after a week or so she began to think that he didn't even notice. She brought him coffee every morning and sometimes in the afternoon when he started looking a bit run down. A few times she brought him lunch. And once, she even took it upon herself to schedule an extra massage for him when she noticed that he had an extra slot of free time.

Just when she thought she might need to change tactic, he gave her a glance when walking in for the day and nodded. "The massage was a very nice bonus for the day yesterday, Haruhi-san. Thank you." She smiled at him. He  _did_ look a lot more comfortable. She had noticed some time ago that he walked stiffly like his back was sore.

"Any time, Kyoya-sama," she murmured in reply.

After that, he seemed to trust her a little bit more every day. And some days he would grace her with a small smile or a nod, something that told her he noticed.

One night came when he stayed late - extra late - later than he ever had since hiring her. She walked into his office after finishing up her work for the day and getting ready to leave. "I'm about ready to head out. Do you need anything else, Kyoya-sama...?"

He looked up at her with a glare from where he sat, needle in hand, stitching up a gash on his own arm. His fist clenched and unclenched. His breathing was heavy and she could just  _see_ the pain that he was trying to hide in his eyes. She stared at the gash for a couple seconds, then back at his face. His blood was soaking through the cloth that he had placed between his arm and his knee. She could either walk out like she hadn't seen anything, or show him yet another kindness and help him treat his wound.

She made a split second decision.

"What happened?" she asked softly as she strode toward him.

"Stop," he snapped, "Just stop, turn around and go home."

"You're hurt."

"Go home, Haruhi," he growled. She didn't pay him any mind, kneeling right down on the floor in front of him. She reached for the needle and thread in his hand. He jerked back quickly. "Go!"

"What kind of secretary would I be if I didn't help my boss when he was in need? Professionally or otherwise?" She saw his eyes flicker slightly, perhaps in resignation or something else. His pride seemed to be hurt by it, but he relaxed his arm and angrily pressed the needle into her hands. "There. See? That was easy." She carefully started sewing the skin back together with careful stitches, just as she had been taught in her emergency medical training for Interpol. She attempted to ignore every small grunt of pain he made as the tip of the needle pierced his skin. "Now, are you going to tell me how this happened?"

He stayed silent until she finished up. "You'll remember that I sent to on break about an hour ago. My father arrived."

She swallowed, the information that his father had possibly done this to him hitting her like a ton of bricks. "And… He did this?" Kyoya neither nodded or denied it. Though the idea of a possibly elderly man abusing his 29-year-old son seemed a bit over the top. "Do I need to call the police?" she asked anyway.

"No," he said sharply and suddenly loudly. He calmed and lowered his voice a bit. " _Never_ call the police. Is that understood, Haruhi? You're never to call the police unless the building is burning down."

"Alright… Do I need to call Akito?"

"No. Don't bother him with this… It's nothing I can't handle."

"Yes. That's why you're sitting in your office attempting to deal with the pain while sewing it up yourself," she muttered sarcastically, giving him a small glare.

"And that is why I have you," he retorted, "To help me in whatever way I might need." He stared her in the eyes through his glasses. And she felt something spark. Like he understood why she was there. Like everything she needed answered would be answered in time. "Thank you," he breathed as he sat up. "You can go now."

"Are you sure? I can stay."

"Your father will worry."

"How do you know that?" she asked then stopped and shook her head. "I'll call him and say that I'm staying late."

"You've already missed dinner."

"So have you. You worked straight through it. Though, your father's appearance may have caused your appetite to disappear." He sighed, looking at her still knelt on the ground from his position in his chair. "Come to dinner with me. Put everything away until tomorrow and come to dinner with me, Kyoya." It was the first time she had said his name without an honorific. He noticed and looked at her sharply. He didn't comment on it, just stared at her like he was trying to read her thoughts. "Let me take care of you…"

"You can't," he stated simply.

"Only because you won't let me." He let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh. "I'm your secretary. And your friend, I hope. You're hurt. You're obviously tired. Just trust me. Let me take care of you tonight just as I have since I started working for you." She stopped and drew in a deep breath, drawing in the courage to do what she was about to do. She placed a hand gently, tentatively on his knee. "Let's go to dinner."

He gave in with a sigh torn between frustration and relief and took his suit jacket off the back of his chair. "Very well," he muttered, pulling the sleeves of his shirt down to cover his recently stitched wound before tugging the jacket on. "Dinner it is."

_One small step closer._

~o~

Kyoya was a very quiet dinner companion. "What are you going to do?" she asked finally.

He just shook his head and replied with a simple, "Nothing."

"He gave you a gash almost the length of your arm!"

"And?" Kyoya retorted sharply. "What do you suggest I do? I've already stitched it up. He's already gone again. What do you  _suggest_ that I do?"

"He shouldn't just be allowed to do that… I don't understand…"

"It's simple, Haruhi. I'm a disappointment. He's angry that I can't be the son that he wants. Therefore, despite my age he disciplines me."

"With  _what_? A knife to the arm?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it  _does_." She stared at him and when he looked up into her eyes, his gaze was cold.

"I don't know why you care so much," he stated, voice mirroring his eyes.

"You're my employer. My friend. Of course I care."

"You've known me for less than four months. That hardly entitles this degree of concern."

"By your standards," she snorted. "Perhaps… I just feel some kind of connection with you."

"Are you admitting attraction, Miss Fusao? That's hardly becoming, seeing as you're my employee." His gaze was sharp and she sighed, biting her lip. "Not to mention you appeared to be completely different from the other women who applied. You weren't concerned at all with how attractive I was."

"I'm not admitting anything of the sort," she scoffed, scowling at him, "I'm just saying that all people are different. Some would be concerned after only a  _day_ of knowing you. Four months is significantly longer. I've gotten to know you far better than most."

He raised a single eyebrow in challenge. "Well then. Impress me with your knowledge of me."

She stared at him, not completely comprehending his request for a moment. "What?"

"Go on. Tell me  _all_ about  _me_." When she was still silent he smirked and nodded his head as if that proved his point. "As I thought." He stood, tossing his cloth napkin on top of his cleaned plate. "Thank you for dinner, Haruhi." He began walking away, something that she couldn't stand to let him do.

"You work. All the time," she started softly, voice building confidence the more she spoke. "Sometimes you stay so late that I think you'll never go home. Some nights you don't. Because there's nothing waiting for you at home. There's no reason  _for_ you to go home. No one waiting, no unfinished home improvement project, no reason to go home except the comfort of your bed which is really nothing compared to the work you could get done while you're lying in bed unable to sleep. You have insomnia and low blood pressure.

"You act cold to shut everyone out, but you really aren't. You have a kind side that does not show itself often. You pretend like you use everyone for monetary benefit when really, sometimes all you want is a friend, someone that you can trust.

"Your father treats you like a child. Your mind is absolutely brilliant. You can make deductions about a person in a blink of an eye just by looking at the small details that others would overlook. You try to pretend that you aren't a genius, just so you can sink below the radar of society. You  _pretend_ to be smarter-than-average aloof CEO, but really, Kyoya, you're a genius. An absolute genius in your personal life and your professional. And _that_ is why I'm concerned. Because you're the genius that I always wished I could be."

His coat dropped from his hand to the floor in a rustle of fabric, his eyes staring straight at her, searching like he was searching her soul for the truth in her words. "How can you possibly know all that? You're just my secretary."

For a single moment she feared that she had said too much, strayed into the information that she had read on him in his file - the file she had compiled on him of all the information she'd known previously. Fortunately, she found her voice again and murmured, "Observations. I can observe quite a lot about you by being your secretary, Kyoya. I basically  _create_ your schedule. And I see the people you meet with before you ever do."

"That doesn't necessarily mean-" He stopped when his cell phone began ringing. He glanced at the screen once before opening it and quickly asking, "What Tamaki?" Even Haruhi heard the screaming that happened on the other end of the phone in his hand. "What?... Calm down, Tamaki… I'm sure everything's fine… Did you call Akito?... Then what the hell are you calling me about?... I told you I didn't care whether or not- Fine. I'll be there in 5 minutes." He tsked as he hung up on the blonde, looking up at her with a single look. "Lucienne's gone into labor. Might end up needing a C-section if things get anymore complicated…" He looked like he wanted to say more so she waited.

To her surprise, a small smile - not smirk,  _smile_ \- came to his lips as he said, "I'm going to be a godfather."

"That's wonderful," she whispered.

"And I have to go. Because I have to welcome my goddaughter into the world properly… And make sure that Tamaki doesn't destroy himself or my family's hospital." He made another irritated noise under his breath.

She just smiled and nodded her head. "I'll pay for you. Go on."

"Thank you, Haruhi."

"Not a problem, Kyoya."

And somehow, just like that, they came to the conclusion that they were friendly  _enough_. Haruhi sat back in satisfaction. Now  _that_ was progress.

~o~

Haruhi looked at the new file with a smile curling on her lips. A photo of a beautiful baby girl plastered the top corner of the document on her phone. The words underneath it read:

_Akami Anne-Claire Suoh_

_Born May 26, 2011_

_7 lbs, 5 ounces, 14 inches long_

_Daughter of Lucienne Achille Suoh and Tamaki Suoh_

_Goddaughter of Kyoya Ohtori_

_Potential to be a very dangerous girl_

"Haruhi!" Kyoya called from his office. She glanced at the partially open door then at the clock with a small frown. He appeared in the doorway seconds later. "Since Tamaki is currently on paternity leave, you're now my second-in-command. We have a meeting in 20 minutes across town. Pack your laptop and these," he paused long enough to hand her a file.

"What the hell is this?"

"The file on the most dangerous man on the planet." He stared her in the eye, which only emphasized his seriousness. "Read it." She did as she was told with pursed lips, stuffing her laptop in her messenger bag that carried her other files and her phone in a secret pocket. When he returned with his coat and own bag, she stood in front of him.

"What are we doing? You don't have an appointment scheduled."

"Check again," he said with a growl. She frowned and looked at her phone with confusion. In red, she now had Kyoya's only open slot until 8 that night filled with one word:  _KUZE_.

"Why do I need to go?"

"Stop asking questions, Haruhi. I already told you."

She stopped walking, staring at his retreating back until he stopped. "Why are you so angry?" He stared at her with a look that said,  _Walk or else_.

She started walking again until she had caught up to him, where he grabbed hold of her arm and walked with her next to him. In a soft deadly whisper, he murmured, "I will explain everything in time. Right now, all you need to know is that this man we're about to go see… He crossed a line."

He pulled her along until they reached the car, then opened her door for her courteously, shutting it behind her in the same manner before walking around to climb in the driver's seat. Haruhi took out the file he'd given her and read through it carefully. Her face started going pale. "Kyoya… This says that this man killed someone."

"More than just some _one_ ," Kyoya muttered with a hard edge. He was driving fast, shifting between gears so roughly that she almost thought that he was going to kill the engine of the stick-shift. "Several someones," he added in a low voice. "Including my grandfather."

"Why the _hell_  are we going to him then?"

"Because… I told him that if he ever went near my family again, I'd personally make sure that he didn't live to see another day. Guess what?"

"Kyoya… You're not going to kill him…"

"I might. He went after my brothers' children at school. That's crossing a serious line." He raced through a yellow light just as it was turning red.

"You're going to get us killed if you don't calm down!" she half-yelled, holding tightly to the handle that was placed above her head right above her car door. She shut her eyes to calm the rising panic at his reckless driving. "KYOYA!" she screamed when he ran straight through an intersection, nearly getting T-boned by a truck in the process. He stopped on the side of the road about half a mile down. She opened her eyes long enough to give him a cold look.

"I apologize," he muttered quickly, "But we need to get there quickly, or he'll be gone before we get there." He pulled back onto the road adding quietly, "If I'm not going to kill him I'm at least going to make sure that he's scared for his life." His hands tightened on the wheel as he urged the car faster, though he made sure to be more careful. When he pulled into the parking lot of a warehouse and stopped, she looked at him sharply as his gaze turned to her. "No matter what, don't say a single word. I just need you there to make sure that I have other eyes in the place than just my own. I'm observant, but even I could miss something that could kill us." He climbed out of the car, looking towards the large warehouse as he did so.

"So… You're risking  _both_ our lives over what?" He glared at her.

"Just don't say anything and you'll be fine. And when this is over, just forget about everything that happened here, alright?" She stared when he pulled a gun from his bag and handed it to her, pulling a second one out for himself.

"Who  _are_ you?" she asked incredulously, even though she knew.

"I told you at dinner, Haruhi… You don't know me like you think you do." He hurried away from her. She took a deep breath in partial irritation.

"Who knows anyone anymore?" she muttered, pulling the top of the gun to load the ammo clip in and heading in after him. She was irritated at his willingness to put his "perfectly innocent" secretary in danger. But at least this meant that she was getting somewhere; that she was getting him to trust her completely. She estimated another week or two before he caved to the inevitable relationship.

And once that happened, she'd have an ace in the hole.

She didn't know what they were doing exactly until they entered an huge open room where a single man stood in the center. "Keep your guard up, Haruhi. Just because he appears alone does not mean that he  _is_ ," Kyoya breathed back to her. She pretended like he hadn't said anything, doing nothing but a tiny little nervous nod as indication that she'd heard him.

Instead, Haruhi studied the man that they were approaching. His hair was swept to the side, an orange-ish brown color that reminded her of the twins, except darker. His eyes were hazel. She couldn't tell if he had foreign blood in him or not due to the scar that crossed his entire face diagonally from above his right eye down to the left corner of his mouth. "Ohtori!" he called, his voice sounding welcoming. Haruhi vaguely heard Kyoya growl under his breath. "What brings you to my humble abode?"

"You know  _what_ ," Kyoya snapped, anger coursing through him. His gun still remained at his side. "I told you to stay away from my family. They have nothing to do with  _our_ feud."

"But your brother-."

" _My brother_  has  _nothing to do with this_. He's a doctor!  _My_ doctor. My  _company's_ doctor. He has nothing to do with you. If there's anything bothering you, it should be taken up with  _me_. Not  _their children._ "

"It's funny how you assume that I meant  _Doctor_ Ohtori."

Kyoya's facial features slackened, his gaze shifting away from the man slightly. "What on earth would spur you to act against an honest businessman?"

The man snorted humorously, like guns and scaring children was a joke. "Are any of us really  _honest_ businessmen, Ohtori?"

"Yuiichi is. My father… Had several dishonest ventures, but fortunately, Yuiichi has not followed his path,  _my_ path." He took a glance at her, the look on his face one of partial shame at admitting it in front of her. She avoided his gaze. He had no idea that everything he was saying was being kept locked up in her mind for later evidence against him. Somehow it felt wrong for her to do this to him. "It still doesn't matter. I told you not to bring my family into this."

His hand raised, bringing the revolver held in it to the man's eye level. "Kyoya," Haruhi whispered, "Stop."

Kyoya ignored her. "There's one bullet in this gun, Kuze. You have six chances, four of which are going to be used right now. The other two, I hope you'll leave at two, since I definitely don't want to kill you."

Kuze snorted and chuckled, like there was a water gun being pointed in his face by a child instead of a 29-year-old man with an apparent vendetta against him. "You think this is the first time someone's played Russian roulette with me, Ohtori?"

Kyoya raised an eyebrow, pulling the trigger once. Haruhi's nerves escalated as it clicked without firing. "I dunno, Kuze. How nervous are you going to get by number four though, I wonder? It has to be one of these. And after every click your chances of getting hit increase by a whole decimal point."

Kuze just shrugged his shoulders. "For God's sake, Ohtori… If you're going to kill me, just  _do it_! Don't play this stupid game with me when it obviously  _doesn't work_." Kyoya pulled the trigger again, registering another click. "Besides, we both know that you don't  _really_ want to kill me. That wouldn't be any fun. You probably purposely placed the bullet in the last slot."

"If you're so sure, just keep talking. My family is very important to me. And you crossed the line of my patience with you by going to my nephews' school."

" _God_ you are  _BORING_. Just. Shoot. Me."

Another click.

"One more chance, Kuze. You have a one-in-three chance of getting hit."

Haruhi couldn't just stand there and watch him do this. "Kyoya. Stop it. Stop it now." She was ignored in favor of a staring contest with Kuze. She saw his finger tense on the trigger. "STOP IT. This isn't you! You aren't a murderer!"

A bullet flew from the gun barrel straight toward Kuze with a bang. Haruhi jumped, turning her head away from the other man, sure that the bullet would hit him straight on. To her surprise, he spoke in a bored tone. "See? Told you. You won't kill me, Ohtori. You'd miss me too much."

Haruhi, against all her self-respect and training, felt aggravated, angry tears build up in the back of her eyes. "You could have killed him!"

"Quiet, Haruhi," Kyoya said smoothly, jaw on edge.

"Oh… I didn't even notice that Suoh was absent. Though it was rather quiet… I should have known." Kuze shrugged to himself and raised an eyebrow at Kyoya. "So… You brought a  _rookie_ with you this time? And she doesn't even know what we're talking about… Let me guess. Your secretary? Girlfriend? Am I close?" He took a step closer with every question, putting him about 5 paces away by the end of his spiel.

"She's not part of this either, Kuze. She isn't to be touched."

"Oh…  _Definitely_ girlfriend. You wouldn't be so protective of her if she were merely your secretary." Now he was 3 paces away and leaning in toward her.

"Kuze," Kyoya warned.

"Oh hush. Don't be so uptight. If I wanted leverage against you, I'd just kidnap your sister or your nephew. Though… Sleeping with your secretary… that's a bit low… Even for you." His hand reached toward her face. " _She is_ rather pretty."

"Kuze!"

The hand withdrew, being replaced by a dot of red light. "Oh  _fine_. _I'll_  leave her alone. I can't promise that my snipers will though!" He returned to his original position, staring across the empty room at them. Kyoya cursed.

"She doesn't know…  _anything_. Just… Leave my family alone, and I'll leave you alone."

"Somehow I doubt that," Kuze muttered. "You like me way too much." Kyoya gave him a hard glare. Kuze produced and orange from his pocket and started peeling it while they stared at each other. Haruhi was afraid to move due to the sniper sight set right on her left cheek.

"Kyoya," she whispered, cursing herself when her voice cracked in fear.

Kuze rolled her eyes and waved a hand in the air. "Fine. You can leave. I don't want her soiling my newly cleaned floors." The red light disappeared. Haruhi closed her eyes. Kyoya turned away and took her hand, pulled her out of the warehouse. She refused to open her eyes until they were back in the car.

Finally, the tears broke loose. "Don't… Don't  _ever_ do that to me again," she mumbled, wiping at her cheeks angrily with her hands. He didn't say anything, just drove without looking at her once. When he stopped in front of her apartment complex, he looked at her.

"If I find your resignation letter on my desk in the morning, I'll understand," he said softly, "Takeshi Kuze is someone that I don't normally like to associate with, mostly because he can be so unpredictable. However, he's made it his life goal to terrorize my family and beat me, so I have to rise and meet him every once in a while."

"Do you have any idea what you just put me through?" she asked, playing the angry upset victim for a moment. "I was in a sniper's sights! That was  _not_ in my job description! I thought I was going to  _die_ in there! And you were just this…  _calm cold…"_ She shook her head, wiping more tears away.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, reaching across the center console and wiping a missed tear away with his thumb. "You act so strong sometimes that I forget you're just a secretary." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Get some sleep. It'll help."

She shook her head hesitantly. "I'm afraid if I let you out of my sight, you'll turn right back around and really go kill him."

He chuckled. "Are you suggesting that I stay with you?" She just looked at him, eyes watery, expression exhausted. He sighed. "Alright. I'll take your guest bed." Most bosses would never offer to stay the night at their employee's house.

Kyoya was not 'most bosses'.

And Haruhi now had managed to get exactly what she wanted. A way into his personal life.

~o~

She woke to the smell of coffee and scrambled eggs and turned sleepily in bed to look at the clock.

_10:00 AM._

"Shit," she muttered. She was late. Kyoya would have her skinned and placed on a pl-. Except he was standing in the doorway, raising an eyebrow at her. She scowled. How…?

"I honestly thought that you would be up sooner," he said, his voice taking on a slight teasing tone. "And I didn't think you'd let your guest make his own breakfast." She sat up, wiping sleep from her eyes and tried to remember why he was here.

Then she remembered Takeshi Kuze. The revolver firing at him. The sniper targets. Him offering to stay with her. She drew in a deep breath. "Sorry," she muttered, "Apparently I was more exhausted than I thought. I'd normally be up 2 hours ago." Then the thought that  _he_ was still there dawned on her. "Shouldn't  _you_ be at the office?"

"I postponed all my morning meetings until later today," he stated, leaving her doorway as she got up and pulled a robe over her nightgown. "Breakfast is ready, if you're hungry."

She stood in the kitchen silently, watching him pull plates out of the cupboard like he belonged there - in her apartment with her. He dished the scrambled eggs and set them on the table, seating himself and waiting for her to sit. "Is this your way of trying to get me to stay?" she asked wearily. "Staying with me, making me breakfast. Are you just trying to make up for last night so that I'll stay?"

He snorted. "If you were going to leave you would have yelled a lot more last night. Not to mention, if you were going to leave, you would have just told me so. I don't  _need_ to do anything to get you to stay."

"Why are you here then?"

He shrugged. "You didn't want to let me out of your sight, so I stayed. I just made breakfast because I was hungry and there was extra."

She sighed and picked up her fork, stabbing a clump of eggs and sticking them in her mouth. He smirked at her acceptance of his meal. "I still think you have some ulterior motive in doing this," she murmured after several more bites.

"Why's that?" he asked. "You were the one who said I was kind underneath my hard exterior."

She shook her head, continuing to eat in silence. "I was wrong. Right now, you're just trying to make sure I don't tell anyone." She stood, pretending to be angry. She had to make him chase her, because any advances she tried to make would just fail. She walked to her kitchen sink and starting washing the dishes. She could feel him standing behind her, gazing at the back of her head quizzically.

"You  _can't_ tell anyone, Haruhi," he said softly. His voice was closer than she expected it to be. Her hands found the edge of the counter and gripped it, shoulders pushing up when her head dropped slightly. She left the water running. She felt his hands on her shoulders. They sagged in response.

"And why not?" she asked, stubbornly scrubbing at her plate with a brush.

"It… It would ruin me." She turned slowly to face him.

"Are you going to threaten me?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to threaten you. I just want to continue doing what I do, hopefully with you by my side."

"Are you going to include me in this… whatever it is..  _Side business_ or can I just go back to being the secretary for KOMSS?"

"Whichever you want. If you don't want to be included, I won't include you. However, I  _do_ need you to attend meetings with me now. At least until Tamaki's off paternity leave." She groaned and stared at him angrily. "I _promise_ none of them are going to be as dangerous as last night's was."

"Fine," she caved. Later, the chances of her being fully integrated into his system would be better if she did this now, though she doubted that any other woman would let him get away with it. "Fine. But  _only_ meetings. I refuse to be a target for  _anyone_."

He smiled at her. "Of course." He withdrew his hands and she briefly got the feeling that she was being used. "Now, I must return to my apartment and get ready for work. I will see you in roughly two hours?" She nodded, dismissing him with the single gesture. "You're a very strong woman, Miss Fusao."

"No," she rejected quickly, turning to face him again. "No. Do  _not_ 'Miss Fusao' me. I don't  _want_ to be  _'Miss Fusao'._ "

He frowned slightly. "What do you want to be then?"

"Haruhi. I just… I just want to be Haruhi to you. Maybe eventually, I won't be just your secretary either. But I  _do not_ want to seen as someone you can use and throw away later. Do you hear me? I won't have it."

"Of course."

"Don't  _'of course'_ me. Just… Be yourself. Stop hiding behind that stupid mask of yours and  _be yourself_. I can't trust you to keep me safe if you are constantly hiding from me."

"Is that all you want, Haruhi?" he asked, his voice taking on a mischievous tone that she wasn't sure if she was delighted to hear or frightened. She stared at him, pretending like she didn't know what he was talking about. He took a step back toward her. "You remember that thing we talked about attraction?" She nodded stiffly. "Well… Perhaps there  _is_ something to it that's more than just physical." He didn't explain himself, just turned and walked away. Once she heard the front door close behind him, she raised her hands to eye level to find them shaking. Her heart pounded. She took a step back, gripping the edge of the sink behind her.

 _That_ wasn't supposed to happen.

She was not supposed to be frightened of him.

And if it wasn't fear, she wasn't supposed to becoming attached to him in any way either. She clenched her teeth in anger at herself.

It was a risk she'd have to take. Because catching him meant so much more to her.

~o~

She hardly got a break the next few days. She was constantly answering phones, scheduling meetings, and attending meetings with Kyoya - none of which actually got her anywhere in her investigation since all of them pertained to KOMSS. By mid-afternoon, she was running almost completely on caffeine while Kyoya still plunged ahead at full speed.

A cup of coffee was thrust in her face. She took it, looking up at the giver with a smile. Kyoya smirked back at her. "I don't know how you do it," she told him quietly as he sat down on the park bench next to her. "Constantly travelling , working,  _talking_. Your schedule is filled to the brim every day. Your attention span must be huge to sit through all those meetings."

"Personally, I'm surprised that Tamaki fares as well as he does with them," he muttered. She snorted back a chuckle. Her head hurt, thudding with a dull ache right behind her eyes. She brought two fingers to her head and immediately found two aspirin being pressed into her hand. "You're doing remarkably well for your first day. I've had years of experience."

She swallowed the pills with a gulp of coffee. "How many years exactly?"

He shrugged. "I've been CEO since I was 19. So… 10 years. I was attending meetings in place of my father on a fairly regular basis for three years before that though. And as a child he would bring me along occasionally."

"You've practically been doing this your entire life then." She shook her head in amazement. "How do  _you stand it_?"

"You're the one that wants to be a businesswoman. This is what that entails."

"Perhaps I'll go back to being a lawyer," she muttered drily, sipping at her coffee. Her companion chuckled, settling back in his seat, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Above their heads, the gray clouds opened up, letting rain pour down. Haruhi laughed a bit when he jumped at the water being dumped on his face. He looked toward her, becoming more soaked by the second.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, voice a bit louder in order to be heard over the sound of the rain on the pavement and grass. She nodded a bit, shrugging her shoulders. "Want to go to dinner?"

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Maybe. Do you want it to be a date?" His face was suddenly inches from hers, his lips whispering in her ear. Her heart started pounding similar to the way that it had the other morning in her apartment. He pulled back just enough to be staring her in the eye. Without even realizing it, she found herself nodding.

"I… I think I do."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Good." His hand slipped into hers, intertwining their fingers together. Surprise filled her for a moment before relaxing into contentment as he led her away. She smiled, tightening her grip fractionally. She looked at his face out of the corner of her eye to find his lips curling into a small smile too. He was leading her in the direction of a small diner, through the pouring rain, when the first bolt of lightning struck, paralyzing her with fear.

When she stopped in her tracks, Kyoya did as well, frowning back at her. "What?"

She stared at him, eyes wide. "M-Maybe we can just go h-home."

He scowled, turning and taking her shoulders in his hands gently. "What's wrong?" She wouldn't look at him, her heart pounding so hard in her chest that she felt like she couldn't breathe. She didn't want to admit that she was afraid. Not to him. "Haruhi. What's wrong?" His fingers gently took her chin and pulled her to face him.

Another crash of thunder made her jump and shake, answering his question for him. He almost chuckled at the absurdity of it. A grown woman being scared of thunder and lightning. He held back the laugh though, knowing she wouldn't appreciate it, and squeezed her hand tightly. "Come on. We can go back to my apartment. It isn't far from here. I'll make us dinner there."

She nodded, forcing her legs to move again. When the next quake of thunder came, she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders, leading her forward.

And the crazy thing was that she actually felt safe.

Safe in the arms of a criminal.

How ironic.


	3. Blossoming

Kyoya was a very casual person when he was not at work. Somehow, she found it odd to see both the work and home sides of him in one day, as she got used to doing. He also was tremendously good at keeping his professional and personal lives completely separate. While at the office, she was merely his secretary. Granted, she was a rather  _close_ secretary, but he never showed her any affection there. And he was not an affectionate person to begin with.

However, once out of the office, out to dinner as he was prone to convince her to go, he seemed to transform in front of her eyes into a relaxed, casual man with whom she genuinely enjoyed spending her time.

They'd been out to dinner almost every night since the thunderstorm. She knew how busy his schedule was, but for some reason, every night he managed to be free around dinner, and sometimes after too. He called it 'their time'. She called it 'I'm sick of work and ready to spend time with you'.

Tonight, they were having a picnic in the park upon her request. The food was eaten, he was sitting with his back against a tree, letting her prop up against his chest. She could hear his heart beating from her position. It was steady, content. She shut her eyes. Why did this  _feel_ so perfect? He was a criminal. She was supposed to be chasing him. But this was absolutely  _perfect_. So perfect in fact that she started wondering what he was doing to her.

And when it would end.

She felt his hand leave hers in favor of sweeping hair out of her face. She smiled as his fingers trailed down her face. His hand left her again. She frowned slightly and let her eyes flutter open to find his staring down at her. The corners of her lips twitched up in amusement as she turned to face him, sitting on her knees. She brushed his bangs out of his face. They were getting a bit long.

The thought was pushed out of her head when he leaned forward and kissed her. She pulled back quickly in surprise, watching a small frown take over his face as his eyes searched her face. "Was that… too soon for you?" he asked, looking a bit insecure for once. She found it oddly cute and shook her head.

"You just surprised me," she murmured, leaning back and returning the kiss with one of her own. She sighed when she pulled back again. "Most of the time you're so…" she trailed off and sat back on her heels, trying to think of the correct word. "… Distant. You're so distant most of the time that when you do something that actually acknowledges my existence it's surprising for me."

He scowled now. "I don't acknowledge your existence most of the time?" he retorted.

"I didn't mean that," she mumbled. "I mean, that is the first time you've kissed me and we've technically been dating for nearly a month."

"I see," he teased gently, "I'm not moving fast  _enough_ for you." She turned her eyes away toward the sky with a chuckle. She was still looking up at the stars when his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him. Her breath hitched when he growled, "Well, we'll just have to fix that, won't we?" She suddenly felt as though his eyes were staring straight into her soul. The intensity of his gaze combined with the heat of his hands on her waist made her face feel like it was burning. He chuckled at how wide her eyes were and the color of her face. "You really are beautiful, Haruhi," he breathed, lips meeting hers gently.

"And you're quite handsome," she replied nonchalantly, lips curling into a smile as he released her. She almost missed the small eye roll that he gave her when they stood. "What?" she asked, bumping his shoulder gently.

"Nothing," he murmured. "Just didn't think you'd actually fall for my charms."

She snorted. "Your charm has nothing to do with it." When he raised an eyebrow she continued, "It has to do with your kindness. And your concern. And your… strange way of showing affection. And your ability to separate your professional and personal lives in a way that makes  _this_ work."

"And perhaps a bit of my charm," he added for her, with a mischievous smirk.

"Perhaps a tiny bit crammed in with your decidedly good looks," she agreed. He chuckled softly, a hand reaching around her to find a place on her waist.

"My family wants to meet you," he murmured as he began leading her away, picnic basket in hand.

She glanced at his face uneasily. "Why would they want to do that?" she asked with a nervous laugh. Meeting his family was not necessarily on her agenda of things to do while she was spying on him.

"Why not?" he retorted. She didn't have an answer that she could easily tell him. "Exactly. How does Saturday night work for you?"

"I don't know… I'd have to check with my boss," she said, her tone playful though underneath she was bristling with apprehension. He gave her a pointed look as she pulled out her phone and texted the twins while pretending to check her -  _their_ \- schedule. "I think I'm free."

"That's what I thought. That night is our monthly all family dinner anyway, so it's perfect."

She dreaded the idea of meeting his  _entire_ family - brothers, sister, siblings-in-law, parents, nieces and nephews in all.

~o~

"What do you do Miss Fusao?" She nearly spilled her wine when Yoshio Ohtori asked her the question. She choked a bit on the sip she'd been taking. Kyoya glanced at her out of concern. She'd been determined to blend into the background through this entire dinner. Apparently the Ohtori patriarch had other ideas.

"I'm-" she broke off and coughed a bit more, clearing her throat out. "Sorry. I'm a secretary."

" _My_ secretary," Kyoya corrected her gently.

"That's hardly good business conduct, Kyoya," Yuiichi muttered sourly.

"Like you didn't meet Mayuri the same way," the younger retorted. Yuiichi's wife scowled a bit. She felt the ice of the glare between the two brothers from her seat next to Kyoya. "At least Haruhi and I are managing to keep it out of the news."

"Enough," Kyoya's mother, Mayumi spoke gently, "This is a family dinner, you two. I won't have you arguing at the table. Take it elsewhere."

"Thank you, Mother," Kyoya said politely, tipping his glass at her before taking another sip of it. Haruhi glanced over at his glass apprehensively. His grip on it was anything but light and she'd been counting how many glasses he had.

This was his fifth and they weren't even halfway through the main course yet.

Something was putting him on edge and she wasn't sure if it was his father's presence or Yuiichi's disproval.

"Sorry I'm late," Akito's voice wafted over them as he hurried through the door, his lab coat over his arm. "Was finishing up on the victims of a car crash at the hospital." He glanced at his younger brother with a twinkle of a smile. "And I checked up on Lucienne and your goddaughter on the way home, Kyoya."

Kyoya smirked a bit with pride at the mention of Akami Suoh. Akito kissed his pregnant wife, Sachi, and his son, Kaede, on top of the head before taking the empty place next to Sachi. "You're due any day now, aren't you, Sachi?" Kyoya asked.

"I'm due in three days. Something tells me that he's going to take after his older brother though," Sachi murmured, a happy smile on her face as she ran a hand through her 8-year-old son's hair. Kaede made a face and asked if he could go play with his cousins. At his question, the other children at the table bounced excitedly. All except for Yuiichi's oldest son, Hajime. Haruhi looked at the 12-year-old curiously. He caught her gaze and stared back with the kind of refinement she would have expected from his father, not him.

"Finish your vegetables first," Sachi told Kaede. The boy pouted for an entire millisecond before scarfing down his vegetables in a few bites. Akito scowled at his manners but waved his hand, saying he could go play. Mayuri excused Mai after inspecting her plate. Yukima had already had Fuyumi's permission when Kaede had asked.

Kyoya took her hand, startling her into looking at him. "You're alright?" he asked softly. She nodded, a bit dazed. She felt kind of light-headed. It must have been the wine.

"Hajime, you're excused if you want to go," Yuiichi murmured to his oldest child.

"Thank you, Father," the boy replied quietly, sliding out of his seat and into the living room with a book in hand.

"He enjoys reading?" Haruhi asked, smiling a bit.

Yuiichi glanced at her and nodded. "He can be very peculiar to other children. Where others his age are being rambunctious and ridiculous, he's quiet. It's quite nice most of the time."

"Except when we want him to talk to us," Mayuri added.

"He's a lot like Kyoya when he was a kid," Mayumi muttered, finishing off her plate. Kyoya groaned at the thought of the embarrassing childhood stories that his mother could unleash. He didn't expect Fuyumi to rise to that challenge though.

"Quiet, respectful, obedient, intelligent," Fuyumi listed his traits with a grin at her younger brother. " _Except_ for that wild streak you had when you were 14 or so. That was when you met Tamaki, if I remember correctly."

"Fuyumi," Kyoya growled in warning. Haruhi gave him a funny look, wondering what could be so embarrassing about Kyoya meeting Tamaki.

Then the image of Kyoya cornered in his chair by the blonde came to mind and the pieces clicked together. "Oh," she said softly in surprise. Everything made a bit of sense now. Tamaki and Kyoya's closeness was not just out of their friendship and the amount of time that they'd known each other. The youngest Ohtori sighed and muttered something about entertaining the children. He got up, leaving her as prey to his family.

"You're the first  _woman_ he's had interest in," Fuyumi said slyly once her youngest brother had departed.

"We  _were_  starting to wonder," Mayumi added, voice quiet. Her gaze was directed toward her youngest son, who had sat on the couch in the adjoining room near Hajime and had started tickling Yukima. Haruhi looked toward her boyfriend's father, who's hand was clenched in a fist at the current topic of conversation.

Was that why his father was so cold towards him? Because he was - or had at one point - been interested in men? She turned in her seat to look over at her boss and boyfriend. Yukima, Mai, and Kaede had decided that the best way to beat their uncle - who at the moment was not their uncle but a demonic tickle monster - was to band together and tickle  _him_. She giggled as Kyoya fell over with a grunt and chuckled as children piled on top of him.

He deserved so much more than someone that was only with him to spy on him.

Later, when they were on their way home, she was completely silent, contemplating where she was right now both emotionally and in her investigation. Where she was going. Where  _was_  she going? "You're quiet," he commented with a glance in her direction.

She hummed in response. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

"You. Us. My job." He frowned but didn't say anything. "You and Tamaki were a couple?"

She noticed his grip tighten fractionally before he replied, "Once upon a time when we were teenagers. Before we realized that the world was a cruel hard place. Before he met Lucienne when we were 21." His grip tightened again and he abruptly pulled over.

"Kyoya?" She looked over at him, unsure as to why he had stopped. They were still at least 10 minutes from her apartment.

"He left me for Lucienne, 6 years ago. And I let him because I wanted him to be happy." He stopped and took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. "At the time, I thought that… I was finished with romance. Completely finished with it." He looked over at her with a smile.

"I'm your first relationship since then, aren't I?" she asked, reaching her hand across the center console hesitantly. Guilt somersaulted around in her stomach. Because she knew that this could only end with him hurt. And that was the last thing she wanted. The last thing she wanted was to hurt him. Especially not when he apparently had already been hurt by Tamaki. He nodded, squeezing her hand. "Is the entire Tamaki… thing… The reason that your father…?"

"I'm sure that's part of it," Kyoya stated bluntly. "He never really liked that I was attracted to men more often than women. Of course, I supposed I'm kind of a disappointment in his eyes, business-wise too."

She scowled. From what she'd seen, he was business genius. "How so?"

"He doesn't support certain…  _venues_  that I use for business." She caught on to his meaning almost immediately and, though this could have been the kind of information she'd been looking for to catch him as a criminal, she didn't ask any further.

She didn't want him to incriminate himself without even knowing that he was doing so.

The guilt in her stomach curled into a tight knot.

~o~

When his birthday came around, he made no comment about it. She wouldn't have even known if Tamaki hadn't sent her a text message to clear up Kyoya's schedule a bit for that evening so they could throw a surprise birthday party for him.

_Alright. It's on your head when he finds out though. - HF_

She sent back, shaking her head with a smile as she looked through his schedule on her phone. He had several important meetings that evening, two of which, she knew couldn't wait until the next day. She bit her lip and cautiously moved three more minor ones from that afternoon on to the next morning, replacing them with the two important ones.

That left his entire evening free after 6 PM. She smiled a bit as she made the proper calls to the different clients that she had just shifted around. All were very eager to shift their schedules to accommodate Kyoya Ohtori. She sighed and shot a quick text to Tamaki saying that he'd be ready by 6:30.

She glanced at the clock.  _10:40._  He was going to be in his current meeting for another 20 minutes. That still didn't mean that she couldn't knock and warn him of the change. She strode to his office door, knocking twice.

No answer came except for a huge crash. Alarmed, she opened the door to find the man that Kyoya had been meeting with surrounded in a lake of broken glass and water, rage tearing at his face and a gun in his hand. Haruhi stared at it then looked toward Kyoya quickly. He shook his head at her a tiny bit, eyes a bit wide.  _"Police?"_ she mouthed, fear bubbling in her chest as the man shouted and waved the gun around carelessly. Again, Kyoya shook his head.  _"Akito?"_ A small nod this time.  _"Security?"_ Another nod. She hurried back out to her desk and pushed the little red security button on the underside of her desk.

She heard Kyoya talking calmly. Haruhi honestly didn't care what Kyoya had done to upset him or what the man wanted, she just wanted the gun out of his hand and him out of that office.

She heard a gunshot right when she noticed Lucienne coming out of the elevator. Against her better judgment, Haruhi ran in the office to find Kyoya, a bullet hole in his shirt that made her stomach do flips, and standing over his former client with a gun of his own. "Kyoya," she stated calmly, now trying to defuse the situation with her boyfriend and boss. Lucienne came up behind her.

"Kyoya, put the gun down," Lucienne commanded, authority in her voice. "You hate getting your hands dirty."

"He shot me," Kyoya spat.

"Well then, it's good you were wearing a bullet-proof vest then isn't it? I'll take care of him from here."

Haruhi raised an eyebrow at the dainty blonde Frenchwoman.  _She_ was going to take care of him? Her and who else? She didn't have nearly the muscle strength needed to dra-

Lucienne strode forward, lifting the man up by the arms single-handedly and yanked them behind his back. "YOU'RE A BASTARD, OHTORI! YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE BUSINESS!" Kyoya twitched a bit and smoothed the front of his shirt, finally noticing the hole in it.

"Dammit," he growled, locking the gun and tossing it onto his desk. Haruhi closed the office door behind her, shutting her eyes and tapping her foot for a moment to collect her thoughts.

"What the hell was that?" she finally demanded as he walked to the closet door.

"An angry client," he stated, "I do get them every once in a while." He pulled a new shirt out, unbuttoning the one he had on with one hand.

"No. I mean…" she stopped, took a deep breath and continued, cursing herself when he voice shook, "I hear a gunshot… And I run in here… And you're shot… And…" She broke off again, drawing another shaky breath and hating that she had been so frightened that he was hurt. He pulled off his shirt, revealing the bullet-proof vest underneath it, a fresh bullet lodged in it. His eyebrow was raised in question. "Kyoya, I thought you were hurt. Fatally hurt. And that…  _scared_ me."

Finally, he seemed to understand. He finished buttoning up his shirt and strode over to her. His hands found their way to her shoulders but she shook them off, favoring holding onto them herself. "If you'd been dead when I came in here…" He shushed her gently, pulling free one of his hands to cradle her face. She closed her hand over it. He pulled her close, letting her wrap her arms around his neck and hold him there.

"I wouldn't have been dead," he told her carefully.

"But if you  _had been._  If you  _weren't_ wearing that vest…"

"Then what?" He brought his other hand up to hold her face, fingers spread out behind her head. His right thumb stroked her cheek gently. He lowered his head and kissed her, giving her more affection in the office than he ever had. "I was prepared for him to blow up," Kyoya whispered when he pulled away to breathe, "Trust me a bit more, Haruhi."

"I do," she said quickly, "You know I do… I just… There was a frightening moment when I didn't care at all about my own safety, I just needed to get to you and make sure you were okay."

"And? I'm okay. You don't have to worry. I'm okay." She sighed, letting her head rest against his chest, breathing in deeply and letting his presence wash over her and calm her. When she lifted her head he asked her what she had needed when she knocked.

"I moved your schedule around a bit. Your two extremely important appointments have been moved up by a few hours. The three more minor ones that were in those slots are now on the agenda tomorrow morning."

"Why the change?"

"I dunno. It might have something to do with the fact that it's your  _birthday_ and I wanted to go to dinner tonight."

He mulled it over a moment then murmured, "Fair enough." He pressed his lips to hers again. "How'd you know it was my birthday?"

"Now  _that_ ," she said, backing away from him toward the door again, "is  _my_ secret. I'll send in your next client when they arrive."

~o~

The place that Tamaki had chosen was somewhere less than ideal for both Kyoya and Haruhi. When they first arrived, Kyoya doubted that Haruhi had chosen it immediately. It was too loud. Much too loud for her to have chosen it for a simple one-on-one dinner. "Haruhi…" he growled when she led him to a table where Tamaki, Lucienne, Fuyumi, Akito, Hunny, and Mori were all sitting.

"It was Tamaki's idea," she interrupted. "He takes all the heat on this."

"Happy birthday!" the six chimed as he approached. Hunny - who frankly Haruhi was surprised to see there at all considering his rivalry with the Ohtori - bounded forward and hugged the birthday boy. Mori patted his head.

"Hey Haru-chan!" Hunny exclaimed, coming to her now and letting Fuyumi have at her little brother.

"Err… Hello, Hunny-san," she muttered, unsure really of the small blonde's presence. "I… thought you and Kyoya hated each other."

"Only professionally," he replied with a brilliant grin, "Personally, we've been friends since high school."

"Really…" She stopped that train of thought right where it was and shook her head to clear it. She glanced over at where Kyoya was chatting with his siblings. Unbelievable. That man had two lives so completely separate from each other that one of his professional rivals was one of his closest friends in his personal life.

And yet, he couldn't quite separate his friendship with Tamaki and relationship with her completely. Somewhere along that separation, the line blurred slightly.

Still, unbelievable.

Kyoya held a hand out to her, inviting her back to his side as he sat down. "You're not mad are you?" she mumbled to him.

"No," he murmured after a moment. "I'm a bit ticked at Tamaki though. He knows I hate surprises." His nose wrinkled slightly in a way that she found oddly endearing. In fact, it was endearing in a way that made her lean forward and kiss him with a smile. He raised a curious eyebrow at her affection to which she just shook her head.

"I'll make it up to you."

"And how, may I ask, do you plan to do that?"

"You'll find out."

"I believe that I just stated that I hate surprises, Haruhi."

"It won't be a surprise, then," she replied. Then her brain registered that Lucienne and Tamaki were both there. "If Tamaki and Lucienne are both here, what did they do with Akami?"

Kyoya chuckled. "I believe they left her with Tamaki's parents for the night."

"They live in Japan?"

He nodded, picking up the glass of liquor that had been placed in front of him by his older brother, who gave him a mischievous grin. "You're taking me to the hospital if I get alcohol poisoning!" Kyoya called after him as Akito disappeared into the crowd with a cackle. Haruhi noticed a similar glass sitting in front of her now and raised an eyebrow at it as her boyfriend answered her question. "Yes. Right here in Tokyo in fact. Yuzuru runs the academy that Tamaki and I went to high school and middle school at and Anne-Sophie owns a small portion of her family's wine industry in France."

"Is  _that_ where the delicious wine always comes from?"

Kyoya chuckled into his glass and nodded.

"And how is your newest nephew?" She always forgot to ask about Akio - Akito and Sachi's most recent child born back in August.

"Ask Akito yourself," he snorted right as the doctor was coming up to them.

"Ask me what?"

"How your lovely little boy is doing."

"Oh, he's fantastic. I've never seen a baby with such a strong immune system."

"He gets it from our family," Kyoya muttered.

"Yes, but Kaede didn't have that great of an immune system, if you'll remember."

"We were in the middle of a pneumonia epidemic when Kaede was born. Not to mention that Sachi had it when she gave birth to him."

"And he almost didn't survive."

"How old is he now?" Haruhi interrupted the mini argument between the brothers.

"Almost four months."

"Oh! Wouldn't it be just  _wonderful_ if someday your nephew and my little girl got married!" Tamaki jumped into the conversation. Akito seemed to twitch at the very idea of his son marrying a Suoh.

"No," Kyoya immediately put down the thought. "You're a big enough nuisance as it is without being related to you."

Tamaki looked like he'd been struck with lightning as he hid behind his wife. Haruhi looked on with amusement, sensing Kyoya's point strongly. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Lucienne refilling his glass and silently counted for him. She promised herself that she wouldn't let him have more than two and no more than half a glass herself.

She caught Fuyumi's eye and left Kyoya's side when curiosity got the better of her. The woman looked like she wanted to talk to her, which Haruhi could understand seeing as she hadn't  _really_ gotten the chance to talk the last time they'd seen each other. When she approached, Fuyumi smirked a bit, remaining silent.

"You look like you have something to say," Haruhi commented carefully, allowing Fuyumi to take control of the conversation.

"Yes…" the Ohtori woman trailed off, thinking for a moment before stating, "I really hope you're not planning on hurting him."

Haruhi scowled. "I don't think I follow…"

"I know who you are, Haruhi Fujioka," Fuyumi said with a low voice. "It was not difficult for my husband to connect your Interpol file with the alias one that Interpol created for you." Haruhi felt dread begin to pool in her stomach, instantly killing her festive mood. "And I sincerely hope that in your determination to bring my brother down, you don't end up crushing the little bit of his heart that he has left."

"I wouldn't," she whispered, "I don't want to hurt him." She ran a hand through her hair. "You haven't told him?"

"No. And I'm not going to. It's none of my business. He trusts you. Fully. He rarely opens up to anyone as much as he has for you. It's ironic really, seeing as you're just dating him for the information he could lend to your investigation."

"I'm not just dating him for that," Haruhi snapped.

Fuyumi raised an eyebrow. "Was that not the point to begin with though?"

"It was… But…" She stopped and sighed, shaking her head. "I don't want to hurt him, Fuyumi-san. I just want to put an end to his criminal activity."

"I hope you know that if you end his criminal activity you finish off a part of him that can't be replaced. It's fully integrated into him. If you want to bring his crime circuit to an end, he'll have to go with it."

Haruhi shut her eyes, willing the woman's words to not worm their way into her heart. "Yes. Don't remind me." She looked down at the glass in her hand and finished it off with a long hard swig.

There went her 'half a glass' rule.

Akito and Lucienne's conspiracy to ensure that she and Kyoya always had full glasses led to many of Haruhi's alcohol consumption rules for the night being shattered into a thousand pieces. By the time it came time for them to head home, Kyoya was a bit wobbly and she'd had a bit more than the half a glass she'd allowed herself to have.

Kyoya was not exactly drunk, but he wasn't completely sober either. And he still insisted on driving. "Do you need help, Haruhi?" Tamaki asked her, always the polite prince.

"No. We got it, Tamaki." The blonde had had his share of drinks as well. His wife was driving them home, seeing as she had somehow completely avoided drinking that night.

"Are you sure?" Lucienne inquired, "I could easily swing the two of you home on our way."

She again declined them, opening the passenger's side door and sliding into Kyoya's car. He looked over at her as she got in, pulling on his seat belt. She was slightly surprised by how sobered he seemed to get once they were in the car. "Don't give me that look, Haruhi. I  _can_ control my alcohol intake a little. And I  _can_ hold my liquor rather well no matter how much Hunny and Mori might tease me about past excursions."

"Your knees were wobbly."

"I also wasn't allowed to stand for three hours." He smirked a bit as he turned the key in the ignition. "I believe I had perhaps two or three. You, however, very much passed your half a glass limit with a definite three." She stared at him, frowning, enticing a chuckle from his mouth as he put the car in reverse and pulled out of his parking spot. "Your concern in endearing."

"I also live close enough that we could have walked."

He snorted, pulling out on the street. "That you do. However, then my car would still be here, leaving us stranded when we went to work in the morning." She had nothing to say to that and resigned herself to looking out the window for the short car ride. "You and Fuyumi seemed to be having a deep conversation for a bit there."

She shrugged. "We were just talking about work." It was partially true.

"I don't have to worry about embarrassing stories being told to my girlfriend when I'm not around then?"

She smiled a bit, her mind turning over Fuyumi's words again in her head. "No. You don't have to worry about that." He pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and turned off the car. He opened his door after a few seconds of waiting to see if she'd continue. She slid out of the car too, pulling her jacket tighter around her and taking his hand as they walked toward the door of her apartment.

Haruhi knew that he would say goodnight at the door and leave. He always did. However, tonight, she found herself yearning for him to stay. Even if he just took the guest room like he had after their meeting with Kuze. She didn't want his presence to leave her. When he stopped at her door and leaned down to kiss her, she pulled back before he could. He frowned a bit. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She looked away from him, feeling that guilt rolling around in her stomach again now more than ever. Then she sighed and shook her head, pulling him into a kiss. One hand found it's way to her waist, the other her head, holding her there as he deepened it. Her lips parted slightly. He pulled away. "Goodnight, Haruhi," he murmured, pressing his forehead to hers.

She tightened her hold on his collar. "Stay," she whispered.

"You had too much to drink."

"I don't care. Stay." She looked him in the eyes, desperate for him to know exactly why she wanted him there. She didn't want him driving. She wanted to know that he was happy and safe. That she wasn't hurting him as Fuyumi had said. "Please." She stood on her toes and kissed him again, one of her hands raising to his neck and fingering the hair at his nape. He let out a small groan.

"I don't want to take advantage of you."

"You aren't. I  _want_ you to stay." He sighed. "I didn't have nearly enough to drink to make me drunk, Kyoya. Stay."

"Alright," he finally relented tiredly. She smiled and unlocked her door, keeping one hand wrapped around his the entire time.

When she closed the door behind them, she closed it on the world.

~o~

It became so much harder for her to pretend that she was just his secretary. And infinitely harder to spy on him. Just the occasional dinner was no longer enough. The twins contacting her every week or so didn't help either.

She suddenly hated that she had ever joined Interpol. She hated that they were having her do this to a man that didn't even deserve it. He was the leader of an organized crime circuit but none of it was intensely serious. He was not murdering anyone that she could tell. Nor was he allowing any wars to go on in other parts of the world by smuggling equipment.

He did more shipping of medical supplies than he did anything criminal, for crying out loud!

She didn't want to do this job anymore. And when she realized that while sitting at her desk one day she closed her eyes against the tears.

Due to the information that she'd already collected, there was no way that Command was going to allow her to drop this now. "Haruhi?" Kyoya's voice coaxed her to open her eyes and look at him.

"Yeah?"

He didn't say anything for the longest time, just stood there leaning against the doorframe to his office. "You're upset. Why?"

"It's nothing," she murmured. He frowned and strode to stand in front of her, squatting so that he was closer to eye level with her.

"No it's not 'nothing'. You're practically crying."

"Kyoya, it's nothing." He shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing a bit. His hand reached out and brushed against her cheek, pushing her hair back behind her ears.

"You can tell me."

"It's nothing you can fix," she revised her statement, looking at him.

He looked at her for a while then sighed and tugged her forward to brush his lips against hers. "Alright. You've been my secretary for nearly a year though. And I believe that you haven't used your vacation days." She shook her head. "How about… We go on vacation together?" She stared at him, not believing that he was actually asking her this while they were still working.

Actually…

She looked at the clock. It was 8. Technically, she was done with work for the day.

"Would that help at all?" he added quietly, taking her hand and squeezing it.

"Yeah," she murmured. "A vacation actually sounds nice." It did. But a vacation from her secretarial duties did not mean a vacation from her spying, which was the thing that she  _actually_ needed a vacation from.

"Good. Because I have one built into my schedule from tomorrow until Wednesday. No meetings for 5 days."

"Where are we going?"

"My family owns a villa in the mountains. It's beautiful this time of year."

"Okay." He stood and offered his hand to her, which she took gratefully.

"We can leave tonight if you can pack that quickly."

She tried not to grin.

~o~

The mountains were beautiful as Kyoya had said. It was cold outside, but inside the villa it was warm. Kyoya was also very warm, as she discovered waking up next to him every morning.

_"Haruhi! Where are you?! It's like you've dropped off the map or something! Call us!"_

She tsked as she checked her voicemail while Kyoya was still sleeping.

_"Haruhi, Matisse wants an update from you. Call ASAP."_

_"By the way, we don't know why you aren't answering your phone, but happy birthday anyway!"_

_"Happy birthday, my Haruhi! I can't believe you're 29! Daddy's starting to feel so old! Your mother would be so proud…"_

She deleted them all, running a frustrated hand through her hair. She could go out to the middle of nowhere in the mountains and would still be plagued by her father and colleagues from Interpol. She couldn't get away from her real job. Her real life. The one where she was required to catch the man that she cared more about than she had ever planned to. She closed her eyes and leaned against the rail on the closed in deck, looking out at the snowy world.

She felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind and almost immediately felt the warmth of Kyoya's presence surround her. She hummed happily, turning her head into his chest. The stubble on his unshaven cheeks scratched against her cheek as he kissed it and let his lips trail down her neck before letting his chin come to rest on her shoulder.

"Happy birthday," he murmured in her ear. She smiled. Of course he'd remember that it was her birthday. He'd probably planned this entire vacation around her birthday on purpose.

"My father thinks it's unfair that you get to spend my birthday with me when he hardly even gets a phone call." She felt the vibrations of his chuckle in her back.

"I suppose it is a bit unfair," he agreed, "But then again,  _I am_ very selfish and you  _did_ agree to come with me." She turned in his arms and let him kiss her good morning properly.

And by properly that meant trapping her against the railing and kissing her until they both needed to breathe.

"I love you," she breathed when he came up for air. He gave her a funny look, brushing his lips against hers again.

"What?" he prompted breathlessly, a slight look of confusion on his face.

"I love you," she said again, looking up at him and meaning it even though she knew that this was just digging a deeper hole for her. There would be no coming back from this. When Interpol finally decided they had enough to prosecute him, she wouldn't be able to do anything but stand by and try not to cry at the look of betrayal on his face. He didn't say anything, just pulled her to him and pressed his lips to the top of her head. He didn't need to say anything for her to know that the feelings were reciprocated.

She felt herself smiling as she embraced him.

"Hungry?" he asked when he finally released her.

She nodded and let him take care of her, leaving the twins and her father to wonder about her for just a little longer.

~o~

Kyoya and Haruhi's first anniversary was spent working at her apartment. She was repainting her kitchen and he was tearing his hair out in frustration at the legalities surrounding a court case. One of KOMSS former employees was suing him for misconduct, something that she found ridiculous seeing as Kyoya was one of the politest men she'd ever met on first impression.

"Haruhi!" he called from the living room where he'd set up a temporary office just so he could get out of the  _actual_ office where he'd been going stir crazy. "Can you look over these claims for me?"

"Sure!" she replied, setting down her paint roller and wiping her hands off on her jeans. When she walked out, she sat down in the place that he had cleared for her on the couch and snatched up the papers that he held up for her, already pouring over a new paper. Her eyes scanned over the document, taking in the small details of the proposal for compromise that he'd set up. She made a few marks on it with a red pen. "Looks good," she muttered after a few minutes. "Though I would suggest lowering the amount of money offered. She doesn't even have any proof of this so-called misconduct. There's no reason for you to give her more than her lawyer cost."

He frowned and took the pages back, looking over the number that she had circled a placed a down arrow next to. "Ah, thank you for catching that," he murmured, leaning over and kissing her cheek distractedly. "You are fantastic."

"You aren't so bad yourself," she replied fondly, running her fingers through his hair while he got back to work. A knock on the door spurred her into jumping up to answer it, scattering some of Kyoya's papers in the process. "Sorry!" The surprise waiting for her on the other side wiped the smile right off her face.

"Didn't think you could avoid us forever, did you?" the twins chorused, sticking their heads in the door. She stared at them, her former grin turning into a grimace.

"I… Wasn't avoiding you," she stated, voice a bit strained as she tried to force it down the octave it had jumped. She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "Kyoya's here… It's not really a good time."

They didn't pay any attention to what she said, just marched right in the door. "We didn't come here all the way from Okinawa just to be turned down!" Hikaru stated with a Cheshire grin identical to Kaoru's. She suppressed a groan as they strode straight into the living room before she could drag them back.

Kyoya looked up at their entrance and raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend. She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Kyoya, this is Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin. We went to high school and college together and apparently they felt the need to drop by unexpectedly when they were not invited."

She did not bother thinking up aliases for them, though she did notice the glimmer of recognition in his eyes at the mention of the twins' names. She remembered belatedly that he had files on them and saw them as a threat because they were Interpol.

Then again, so was she.

And again she felt that horrible guilt fill her, nearly threatening to overwhelm her.

"Hikaru, Kaoru, this is Kyoya Ohtori, my-"

"Yeah," they interrupted her quickly, "We know who he is."

She pursed her lips at their rudeness. Kyoya didn't react more than the regular eyebrow raise, keeping a surprisingly good calm appearance on even though she just  _knew_ that his brain was currently running through every possible mistake he could have made to bring them here.

She also happened to know that it was nothing that he did that had brought them here. That was entirely her fault.

"So is he why you were avoiding us?" Hikaru asked, leaning against his twin.

She sighed in irritation. "I already told you… I wasn't avoiding you."

"You haven't spoken to us in months."

"You didn't-"

"Oh yes we did."

She threw her hands in the air. She knew they were right. She knew it and she didn't want to admit it. They were two of her best friends and as much as she loved them she honestly had been trying to put off all contact with her real life. Admitting that was too much. She didn't want to acknowledge the fact that eventually - and if the twins were there  _now_ it would probably be soon - she was going to have to reveal herself to Kyoya as a spy.

And then he would undoubtedly hate her.

"I'm not doing this with you two right now," she muttered, pushing past them back to the kitchen where she could take her anger out via angrily painting the walls.

"Do what?"

"Your stupid little games. I'm not some kind of toy." She doused her paint roller in pale yellow paint and slathered it on the closest wall. They did not seem to understand the emotion she placed behind the words seeing as they had followed her into the kitchen.

"Listen," Kaoru said in a low voice, "Matisse sent us to check on you."

"You haven't called him and you haven't answered any of our calls for two months. We were worried," Hikaru added.

She sighed, feeling her anger melt a bit. They were just worried. "You shouldn't have showed up like this. You could have texted," she mumbled, pushing the paint on the wall around with the roller in her hand.

"You weren't answering our texts either."

She didn't know how to answer them, so she told them the truth. "I don't want to be part of this anymore. I just want to pretend like Matisse and Interpol don't exist and that this investigation isn't happening. I wish I'd never brought it up."

The twins now wore identical frowns. Everything they did was identical and it was infuriating. It felt as though she was getting twice the emotion with only one actual person sometimes. "Why? What changed?" Kaoru asked her, his eyes, as always, showing more understanding than his twin's.

"I discovered… That he is not a bad person. Not like his record would like to claim. He does not deserve this. He doesn't deserve me. And he especially does not deserve to have his freaking heart broken in two  _again_ when I have to leave."

"Matisse thought that was the case," Hikaru muttered, though he looked and sounded like he didn't want to believe it. "And he told us to tell you that you can't lose sight of your assignment. You can't just throw it away when _you_ are the one that has worked so hard to bring it to this point. Don't throw that work away Haruhi."

"I don't want to do this anymore, Hikaru," she whispered, "Can you understand that?"

" _I_ kind of can," the older Hitachiin replied, "But Matisse won't. So what do we tell him?"

She sighed. Her career depended on this assignment. If she didn't follow through then her job at Interpol would be finished. She wouldn't be able to get it back no matter how much she tried. She rolled more paint on the wall to buy time. "Tell him… Tell him that I believe this investigation should be dropped based on the fact that we have not found nearly enough relevant information. And if he believes the contrary then someone else should be placed here in my position."

Her job didn't matter. She could find a new job. She couldn't find another Kyoya.

"Okay," Hikaru muttered, looking at her like he had wished she would say something different. He turned to the door without even saying good bye.

"We'll be in touch," Kaoru murmured, "And answer your phone this time." She nodded with pursed lips as she watched the two leave her apartment.

"What was that about?" Kyoya asked as she shut the door behind them. She glanced over, noticing his tight jaw and strained back almost immediately. He'd been placed on edge by their very presence.

Time for damage control.

"Oh nothing. They think that not talking to me every day is a crime. Honestly, they act like children sometimes."

"You know that they're Interpol agents right?"

She debated whether to tell him the truth and found herself nodding. No more lies. Or at least as few of them as she could manage without completely blowing her cover. Without hurting him. "They were recruited by Interpol, I went to law school. Interpol tried to get me too. I turned them down."

"Why?"

"I didn't like the idea of being stuck in an office attempting to control all the crime in the entire world. It's just not possible. And I felt as though I could help more people by becoming a lawyer."

"And yet you ended up as a secretary… Interesting."

She sat down next to him again, slipping her hand into his and squeezing tightly. "But if it weren't for that secretary job, I wouldn't be sitting right here with you now."

His shoulders relaxed to her relief. "Right you are," he muttered, pecking her on the lips. "Go finish the kitchen. I'll come help once I finish this."

"Kyoya, it's going to take you longer to finish that then it will for me to finish the kitchen."

"Well then, I'll cook dinner." His voice sounded amused. His eyes were back on his paperwork and computer screen. She smiled and gave his hand one more squeeze before heading back to her painting.

Internally, she still thought about the twins' visit.

She absolutely dreaded the day that was coming very soon.

~o~

Lately, they had been staying at her apartment, sleeping in her bed, eating her food. Kyoya had practically moved in with her, but she didn't complain. As long as she was able to remain near him, she didn't care where they were. It had been only two weeks since the twins had come by.

Only two weeks. And much, much too soon.

"Haruhi!" Kyoya yelled. He never yelled. Never full out, angry yelled anyway. Something was wrong. And she had a feeling that she knew exactly what it was too.

No. It was too soon.

"What?" she called back, stalling for time. When he didn't reply, she drew in a deep breath to gather together her nerves before heading back to her bedroom.

He was sitting on the bed calmly - though his eyes told a completely different story. In his hands was the accordion file folder that she used to keep all of her files on his and his company, the section on him was completely empty and sitting on one of his knees. She swallowed, willing her emotions not to show on her face.

"I think we need to talk," he said icily.


	4. Committing the Crime

Haruhi looked between the files in his hands and the hardness of his eyes as her brain attempted to catch up to his words.  _Too soon. Way too soon. I'm not ready yet._ He raised an eyebrow at her frozen form standing in the doorway to her bedroom. She could feel the beginnings of betrayal rising in his mind. And his eyes… They were so cold.

He had already started to hate her.

"I… can explain," she finally said hoarsely.

"Then explain," he replied, voice hard and toing the line between resentment and hurt. Why did she have to do this? How could she get out of this without him hating her?

She couldn't so she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and plunged headfirst into the water. "My name is Haruhi Fujioka," she began, voice shaking. That was enough to send his expression into one of disgust. Disgust with her, disgust with himself for not noticing. He recognized her name - of course, he did. He had a file on her nearly as big as the twins'. "It started off as a job. Become your secretary, obtain information that we could use against you, get as close to you as possible to do so." She cringed at his glare.

"Who is  _'we'_?" he asked when she opened her mouth to continue, gritting his teeth in anger.

She let out a deep breath and whispered, "Interpol."

He was pissed. She could tell because although he appeared calm, his eyes were practically on fire. She almost wished that he would yell or hit her or  _something_. Anything but the cold calm anger that he was emanating now. "How…?" he stopped and shook his head. "So this entire thing has been a lie." It wasn't a question.

"No." She stepped forward only to step back again when he glared at him. "I love-"

"Don't," he spat, "Don't even  _go_ there." His hands clenched into fists and she flinched as he stood, scattering papers with her notes on them. "I don't want to hear empty lies."

"They aren't-"

"You were  _spying_ on me the  _entire time_ , Haruhi!" She zipped her lips shut, letting him take his anger out on her. Lord knew she deserved it. "I trusted you. As my secretary, my friend  _and_ my lover!"

"You're overreacting."

"How am I  _supposed_ to react to this?" He was close to yelling now, losing every ounce of calm that he had. "My entire relationship is a  _lie_. The woman that I  _fell in love with_  is just a spy out to take me down."

"That's not true!"

"Bullshit, Haruhi! You were  _sent_ to me by Interpol! It was a job! That was it!" He stared at her and, shaking his head angrily, started for the door. "I can't believe I didn't realize it before," he growled. She turned and walked as calmly as she could after him.

"Kyoya, stop. Just listen-"

"No," he spat back at her. "No. You… Stay away from me." He'd reached the door and yanked the front door open. "Good bye, Fujioka-san."

The door slammed shut with a bang before she could even gather her thoughts. Her heart crumpled, cracking in two as she slumped to the ground. She pulled out her phone and texted the twins, although they were probably the last people that would possibly understand, she couldn't tell her father. She got up and stumbled back toward the bedroom, holding back tears as she gathered up her fallen papers.

When she stood again, holding the huge folder in her hand, she noticed the small jewelry box sitting on her bed and frowned. She picked it up gingerly, setting the file down to cradle it in her hands. She was scared to open it because opening it would just show her how much she had screwed up.

She did it anyway. The small diamond ring nestled inside the box nearly made her want to scream at her own stupidity. She stared at it, hearing her front door open but not really caring. When the twins entered her bedroom, she looked up at them and shook her head. "He was going to propose," she mumbled. They took a seat on either side of her and wrapped an arm around her. She snapped the box shut and dropped her hand.

"And what would you have said if he did?" Hikaru asked quietly.

"I would've said yes." She shut her eyes against the ache in her chest now that it was hitting her that he was gone. "I'm an idiot."

"No you aren't," Kaoru berated her gently, taking one of her hands while his twin took her other. "If he had proposed before this that just would have made it worse. You would feel even worse."

"I guess." She sniffed and laid her head on Kaoru's shoulder.

"It's okay to cry," they stated in unison.

"No it's not," she muttered. "I'm not allowed to cry because this is my fault. He's the one that's really hurt by it."

Hikaru sighed and stood, muttering something about making tea. Kaoru watched him leave before responding gently, "You're hurting too, Haruhi. You need to do something to ease your own pain."

"Kaoru," she murmured, lifting her head and staring him in the eye. "I have seriously hurt the man that I love. There is no way that I'll be able to feel better about it until I ease his pain."

~o~

Kyoya drove angry, fast, recklessly to his best friend's house. Despite the blonde's normally annoying nature, he could be incredibly understanding when the situation called for it. Being around his goddaughter would also hopefully change his outlook on the current situation with his ex… everything.

That and Lucienne made a mean cup of tea strong enough to erase any emotion from his system.

It was getting late but he didn't so much care about his intrusion on Tamaki and Lucienne's night when he knocked on the door. It had begun to rain. Funny how the weather always seemed to reflect a sour mood. He leaned against the doorframe and waited for one of the Suohs to answer the door. When Lucienne finally did, she started in surprise at seeing him.

"Kyoya?" Then she noted his expression. " _Merde._ What happened?"

Tamaki stood slightly behind his wife, holding his 13-month-old daughter. Kyoya glanced at him and said in a surprisingly stable voice, "She's an Interpol spy. Haruhi Fujioka. She was spying on me the entire time." He finally cracked, laughing in disbelief.

"I'll go make some tea," Lucienne murmured, stepping back from the door and hurrying into the kitchen, taking Akami from Tamaki on her way past. Tamaki strode to his best friend and put his hands on his shoulders. He felt the shudder of the Ohtori's body and sighed sympathetically.

" _Mon ami_ ," he tsked softly, "Are you alright?"

"No," Kyoya growled, "I just got my heart ripped out by an unfeeling Interpol seductress. Do you think I'm alright?"

The blonde smiled sadly and squeezed his shoulders, allowing the other man to vent. "I'm so… angry with myself for not realizing it sooner. There was always something off about the way that she behaved. And then those stupid twins showed up… I should have known."

Tamaki was silent, leading him to the couch and sitting him down. He was surprisingly logical despite the fact that he knew for a fact that he was dying inside. He also seemed to be rather calm about the entire thing when anyone else would have broken down crying by now. Finally, as he caught sight of his wife carrying a cup of tea, the blonde murmured, "I doubt she's as unfeeling as you claim she is."

Kyoya snorted. "She is. She didn't show any remorse."

"Now  _I_ doubt that," Lucienne stated with a frown, pouring tea with one hand and placing Akami in his lap with the other. "Even I could tell that she genuinely cared about you, Kyoya. Even if she was ordered to get as close to you as possible, she wouldn't have gotten into a relationship with you if she didn't want to."

Kyoya bounced his goddaughter, smiling when she pointed at him and said, "Kyo!" He seemed to completely ignore Lucienne.

"Are you even listening to me?" the Frenchwoman demanded.

"Of course, I am. That doesn't mean that I'm going to believe you."

Tamaki winced as his wife glared at his best friend. Finally, Akami yawned and settled herself against her godfather's chest, falling asleep rather easily. Her parents stared at her. "You need to come over more often," Tamaki muttered, "She  _never_ does that for us."

Kyoya smirked and asked hesitantly, "May I stay here tonight?"

Lucienne sighed and nodded her head, gently pulling Akami from his arms. "Of course, Kyoya. We wouldn't push you away. Just don't sleep with my husband." Kyoya didn't laugh at her joke, though Tamaki gestured wildly, asking, "Why would I do that?!" Lucienne smacked him in the head with her free hand and put a finger to her lips, looking down at the sleeping baby girl in her arms pointedly. He gave her a sheepish look and turned back to his best friend, letting her go to bed.

" _Mon ami,_ " Tamaki murmured, sitting back next to him. The other man seemed deep in thought, his mind running through all the scenarios that could have possibly happened with Haruhi. He felt a hand on his chin and looked up from the floor. "What are you thinking?" the blonde asked softly.

"I was going to propose to her. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Possibly not even this week. But soon. I had the ring already. What would have happened if I'd proposed to her and then discovered this? What if I ended up _marrying_ her and found out that she…"

Tamaki sighed, placing a hand on his friend's knee. "Are you saying that perhaps this is a blessing in disguise?"

"No," Kyoya stated, "No. Heartbreak can never be a blessing. Though I guess it is a good thing that I found out now as opposed to later."

"But," the blonde interjected a thought, "What if you had married her and you were happy together? Kyoya, Lucienne had a point when she said that Haruhi wouldn't have gotten into this with you if she didn't want to. She _wanted_ to be with you. What if she had wanted to marry you?"

Kyoya sat back, looking over at him and swallowing. "It still doesn't change the fact that she lied. She lied to me about her identity, her life, her reasons for being here, everything."

"And? What would you have done if she had told you straight out that she was an Interpol agent?"

Kyoya hated it when he was right.

~o~

Haruhi stared down the hall of the top floor of the KOMSS office building. Her desk was still there, everything left untouched. The thick wooden door to Kyoya's office still remained firmly shut. This had been her life for the past year and a half. She strode hesitantly to her desk and opened the drawers, pulling out the company laptop she had been given for work. She sifted through the drawers, emptying them of all personal items that she had left there while waiting for the laptop to boot up.

Her pockets were filled with hairclips, photographs, small notes to herself and ones from Kyoya, things that reminded her painfully of everything that she had done wrong even though it had felt so  _right_. She pushed a USB drive into one of the slots on the laptop and sifted through the files, sorting between the ones that Kyoya's next secretary would need and the ones that were her personal ones.

She made copies of those on the USB drive and deleted the hard drive's copy.

"I thought I made it clear that you were fired," Kyoya's voice startled her, causing her to jump.

"I'm gathering my things," she replied softly, eyes scanning the last of the computer files and deeming them necessary for him. She unplugged her USB from the drive and looked at him. He stared at her just as coldly as he had the night before. "Do you hate me now?" She couldn't stop herself from asking.

He gritted his teeth in response. "You could say," he growled. "It's not every day that someone slips past my guard and turns out to be a spy."

She swallowed. "I… Asked them to drop the investigation when the twins dropped by two weeks ago." It couldn't hurt to tell him. If Interpol really did drop it, it would be in his best interest. If they didn't, then he'd just have to be more careful about the people he hired. "I honestly never wanted to hurt you."

"Get out," he spat. So apparently he was still bitter. He still didn't want to listen to her tell him the truth.

"Will you just listen to me?" she asked, her desperation showing through as she walked toward him. He put a hand up, stopping her in her tracks.

"I don't want to listen to you if you're going to tell me everything that I want to hear instead of the truth."

"I'm  _trying_ to tell you the truth!"

He looked away from her, obvious irritation crossing his features. "Talk then," he said, gesturing for her to continue. His eyes were cold, unaccepting, cruel. The complete opposite of everything that she was used to seeing in them.

She sighed and strode forward. "There's no point if you're not even going to hear what I say," she grumbled, taking his hand and placing the jewelry box in it. The elevator at the end of the hall dinged, indicating Lucienne's arrival. She started to walk away as Lucienne headed toward them but stopped and turned back, her eyes sad and determined. "But… Just for the record, if you asked, I would have given up Interpol to marry you."

The corners of Kyoya's lips twitched as he watched his ex-girlfriend leave. Lucienne stood and watched from next to him until the elevator doors closed. "What was she doing here?"

"Gathering her things," Kyoya replied shortly. "I want you to follow her." Lucienne gave him a confused look. "I don't want her near me. I don't want her meddling in my business. But most of all, I don't want her screwing with my emotions, ever again. If she shows any signs of coming anywhere  _near_ me…"

"You don't honestly want me to kill her," Lucienne said, scowling at him with disproval, "That is  _hardly_ a way to deal with your ex-girlfriend,  _imbécile_!" He gave her a hard glare and she huffed. "I will  _trail_ her, but I will not _kill_ her, Kyoya. Not when I don't have a reason to."

Lucienne stormed away in a way typical of her husband, leaving him staring down at the jewelry box in his hand. He flipped the lid open and gazed at the ring for a moment before taking note of the tiny slip of paper tucked into the inside of the lid. He scowled and pulled it out, unfolding it into a small two inch squared slip of paper. The folds made it more difficult to read but he looked past it.

_Kyoya,_

_I'm sorry. I never ever wanted you hurt. Please believe me. I love you._

He tsked angrily and threw the note in the nearest trashcan, slipping the ring box into his pocket.

He never wanted to see her again.

~o~

It was late when Interpol Command called her. Apparently, they forgot that Tokyo was 8 hours ahead of Lyon. Either that or they didn't care if they woke her up accidentally when they called at midnight Tokyo time. She would have loved to just ignore the  _Unknown_ caller ID that popped up on her phone, but she knew that it was no use. If they couldn't reach her via phone, they would find other ways. She flipped her phone open and said in rapid French, "I have exactly 2 minutes to listen to you yell at me, Matisse. You better as hell make good use of it."

"Why have you not been in contact for the past month?"

"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps because my cover was blown nearly two weeks ago and now I'm just trying to pretend like you don't exist."

"Fujioka." The warning in his voice couldn't be more prominent. God… He sounded like her father.

"Look… He knows. So just… Drop it, okay? There's not even a point in sending someone to replace me here now since he knows Interpol is after him."

"We'll have to use what we have now."

"Which is what exactly? A couple names of people that are  _maybe_ connected to him? Records of medical supply shipping? Which, by the way, I can validate as being completely valid as medical supplies. We have bigger fish to fry than Kyoya."

"First name basis now, huh? Is that why you want to drop it?"

She swore as she realized her mistake. Calling Kyoya by his first name was something that she could do around the twins, but not Matisse. "No. I'm dead serious about this… You know I am. And if almost a year and a half as his secretary and a year as his girlfriend yields this little, there's really no point in continuing. I am asking you as an agent to drop this before anyone gets hurt."

"And what do you think we should do instead? A year of investigation just down the drain? I don't think so."

She smiled as a thought came to mind. "I think I might have something else for you. The leader of another crime circuit, Takeshi Kuze, is a rival of Kyoya's. And I bet you anything that Kyoya would be willing to testify against him given that you drop all investigation on him."

"You know we don't compromise with criminals, Fujioka."

"Yes, I know. But considering this has yielded so little, he's technically not considered a criminal. Perhaps a suspected one, but not a convicted one." She paused and sighed. "He just wants to be left alone, Matisse. He's a regular man who wants to be left alone."

She heard silence on Matisse's end of the phone as he thought about it. She could practically hear the reluctance in his voice as he said, "I'll check with the General Assembly and such about Takeshi Kuze. Since you've become so cozy with Ohtori, can I ask that you speak with him about testifying against him?"

She faltered for a moment. "I can try," she murmured unsurely, "He's… not really speaking to me at the moment." Haruhi could practically hear Matisse's silent scoff over the phone. She defended herself before he could even speak, "I broke his heart, Matisse. He was going to propose to me and I broke his heart." She didn't even mention that hers was broken along with it and she could still hear the implication in her voice.

Her superior made a tsking noise. "Emotion in a case is dangerous, Fujioka."

She snorted. "You were the one that suggest I become his girlfriend."

"I never told you to become emotionally attached."

She bit her lip. He hadn't. That had been her fault entirely. "Goodbye, Matisse."

"Good night Fujioka."

She sat in her pajamas, on her bed, in her empty apartment and felt totally alone. He'd used his key to retrieve anything that he had there while she was out and then left the key on the kitchen table.

She closed her eyes and let the hand holding her phone fall into her lap.

She had to do something about this.

~o~

Haruhi didn't discover Lucienne trailing her until nearly a week later. She started devising a plan to trap the woman and talk to her. She still hadn't given up on Kyoya, although she had decided to keep her distance for now. If only to give him time to heal without her there trying to convince him that he was wrong.

She walked into a bookshop that she knew was normally empty and turned down an aisle, waiting until she heard the jingle of the bell on the door again to move from her 'browsing' of the shelves. She hurried around silently until she found the blonde Frenchwoman standing on the other side of the bookshelf. "He sent you, didn't he?" Haruhi asked, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

"How are you holding up?" Lucienne asked instead, clasping her hands behind her back innocently.

"How is he?"

Lucienne pursed her lips at the lack of answer to her question but answered the brunette's anyway. "He's… hurt. Angry. I don't think it's quite registered in his mind yet that you could completely destroy him but you aren't."

"I never wanted to hurt him," Haruhi mumbled, running a hand through his hair. "I love him to death and he wants nothing to do with me."

"Why didn't you tell him sooner then?"

"You and I both know that he would have done the exact same thing. Pushed me away and shut me out."

"You could have left him."

The idea of leaving him without explanation drove a spike of pain straight into her heart. "No. That would have just hurt him more. I just want him to listen to me. I just want him to understand that I never wanted any of this to happen. He never needed to know. I was getting ready to quit Interpol."

"Why did you wait then?"

The question was not one that stumped her, just one that she hadn't expected to be asked. "I wanted to pretend that the real world didn't exist. There was the world where I was with Kyoya and there was the real world where I was supposed to turn him in. I wanted the one with him and I tried to ignore that the other even existed. It was a mistake to wish it away and it came creeping back to destroy both of them."

Lucienne narrowed her eyes slightly in thought. "You really do love him, hmm?"

Haruhi nodded. "I was an idiot for ever letting my emotions into this investigation." She closed her eyes. "I need to talk to him. And I need him to listen."

The Frenchwoman seemed unsure for a moment but then she nodded slowly. "I'll… see what I can do. Don't try for a week at least. Until you get my message."

"Thank you."

Haruhi nearly sighed in relief as the woman left. She knew it would be easier to talk to Lucienne, despite how intimidating it was to know that she was a trained assassin. The Frenchwoman had no reason to hurt her or hate her, although there might be a slight grudge against her due to what she'd done to Kyoya.

~o~

Kyoya frequently caught himself staring at the ring box on his bedside table whenever he was at home, which was not often any more. It ate at him how often he thought about his own stupidity - about her.

He should hate her for what she had done to him. Led him on, spied on him, made him think she actually gave a shit.

And yet… Her face when he had left her apartment still stuck with him. Her brown eyes shadowed with guilt, weighed down with sadness. Extremely similar to the way they had been during their encounter at his office.

He was not hiring a new secretary. In fact, he was not hiring anyone for a very long time - at least until he was positive that Interpol was no longer on his tail.

He sighed and pulled himself off his bed when the doorbell rang. Why did the trek from his bedroom to the front door of his apartment feel so… tiresome? He sighed as he opened the door to glare at Lucienne. "Hey!" she said  _much_ too cheerfully for his taste, "How you doing, Kyoya?"

"Shouldn't you be trailing Haruhi?" he growled.

She scowled at his attitude. "In case you forgot, I  _do_ have a family, Kyoya. And my work day is officially over as soon as she's home, which she is. I can't constantly babysit your ex-girlfriend for you and it's not exactly what I was hired to do either."

"You were hired to do security detail for whatever I need you to do," Kyoya retorted, moving aside to let her in and moving to plop on the couch.

She ignored his comment. "You look like hell."

"Thank you so much for that encouragement," he muttered sarcastically, taking off his glasses and pressing his palms into his eyes. He groaned when he noticed the incoming migraine.

"Are you sick?" she asked, concern edging in her voice.

He lifted his head long enough to glare at her. "I don't get sick."

"Of course you do. You're human."

"Shouldn't you be home with Tamaki and Akami?"

"He can deal without me for another hour. And I highly doubt that Tamaki will mind that I'm late getting home if it was because I was taking care of his best friend." She gave him a pointed look. "Have you eaten dinner?"

"No."

"Have you eaten at all?"

"Haven't been hungry."

"That isn't normal, Kyoya."

"I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat."

"Kyoya, you need to eat something."

"No."

Lucienne sighed, frustrated with this stubborn man. He was going to be the death of her one day if her husband didn't manage to kill her first. "Heart break is not an excuse to neglect taking care of yourself," she murmured, taking his hand carefully. He pulled it back stubbornly. She hadn't wanted to resort to this but… "What would Haruhi say or do, I wonder? I doubt she would approve of this type of behavior."

"I don't _care_  what she thinks!" Kyoya spat, the rage appearing in his eyes in seconds. Lucienne overlook his outburst and allowed him to calm down a bit before taking his hand again.

"You need to eat something, Kyoya. You're acting like a child and you aren't taking care of yourself properly. Tamaki is worried and, frankly, so am I." She paused for a second, wondering if it was even safe to bring this up. "And… Haruhi is too."

"You talked to her?" The accusatory tone in his voice did not escape her notice.

"Is that not allowed?" she asked innocently.

"I told you to follow her, not  _interact_ with her!"

"She's my friend too, Kyoya! Besides, she trapped me in a bookstore. I could hardly  _not_ talk to her. And she noticed that I was following her."

"You weren't trying to be stealthy then."

"She's an Interpol agent… I think she knows how to tell when someone's trailing her."

"Why are we even talking about this?"

"Because  _she_ is worried about  _you_. Because she wants to  _talk_ to you, but you won't let her anywhere  _near_ you!"

"Yes," Kyoya interrupted her rant, "And I don't want to talk to her either. I don't want my emotions being toyed with again."

"What emotions? For years you denied even having them and suddenly, because of one girl, you've completely lost it." Lucienne sighed as he gave her a glare that would have killed any other person but her where they sat. "I'm just trying to say… That she's given you space and now I think it's time that you stop this silly game of yours and talk to her. Or at least listen to her talk. If anything I think it'll give you closure."

"I don't need closure; I need her as far from me as possible."

There was no reasoning with him. None at all. She sighed and gave up for the night. "I'm going to make you some soup," she declared, "You better eat it."

~o~

Haruhi waited for a week. An entire week waiting for Lucienne's call. An entire week rehearsing what she would say to him in her ten minutes. What she would do to get him to listen. She'd gone through practically every scenario in her head that she could think of ranging from him threatening her or kicking her out to accepting her - which she hoped he would.

And finally, when that call came. All of her thoughts left her.

_"He's in his apartment for his lunch break right now. I'll give you 15 minutes unless he calls me first. Please don't let him call me, Haruhi."_

She grabbed her bag immediately and left the coffee shop she had been seeking refuge in. As she approached his apartment building, she felt a small shudder of nerves pass through her. He would not be happy to see her. Not at all.

She used her key, which she still had not given back, and was now glad of. She closed the door behind her as quietly as she could but somehow when she turned around, she still found a gun being pointed in her face. She raised an eyebrow at the holder. "You think this is the first time I've had a gun pointed at me, Kyoya?"

His glare was one that held his misery and anger. "Get out. Now."

"I just want to talk."

"I don't want to talk to backstabbing whores."

Ouch… That one actually kind of hurt.

"You never let me properly explain, Kyoya. Besides, I have a proposition that you may want to hear."

"From Interpol? Tell them to go screw themselves."

She shook her head, a faint smile beginning to show. "Put down the gun. I think you'll find it rather appealing actually. It'll get them to drop the investigation on you, something that  _I_ personally would like actually." His lips twitched in disgust as he lowered his arm, tossing the firearm onto the island counter by the kitchen.

"You have 5 minutes. Less than if I choose that I don't like where this is going," he growled, giving her another resentful glare.

She swallowed and told him straight out, "I offered up a proposition to the General Assembly of Interpol. They're still deliberating it but it will mean that my year and a half of undercover work will not be useless as well." He snorted at the words 'undercover work' spitefully. She ignored him. "They will drop the investigation on you given that you provide information on and testify against Takeshi Kuze."

Kyoya's face seemed to pale slightly - or perhaps it was just the light - as he stared at her. "Don't go after Kuze," he murmured quietly, shaking his head.

"Getting rid of your business rival seems like a good plan actually."

"Kuze will destroy you," he stated it as if it were a proven fact. "Regardless of whether you get him in custody and manage to convict him or not, he will  _destroy_ you." She stared at him, wondering how one man could have that much power. "I mean it, Haruhi. And I don't mean just  _you_ specifically. I mean  _all_ of you. All of  _Interpol_ if he has to. And trust me; he's insane enough to try it."

Was that… fear she detected in his voice?

"It's either Kuze or you," she said gently. "And I'd really prefer that it were Kuze."

"Because you still  _love_ me, right?" he asked scathingly. She hated that he mocked her feelings.

"Yes, actually," she said calmly. She had imagined this conversation going slightly different. "And that's also why I brought this." Her hands reached into her bag. He dove for the gun that he'd previously discarded, aiming at her as she pulled out a file folder. She stared at the weapon in his hands in disbelief. "You thought I was going to bring out a gun and  _shoot_ you?" she demanded angrily. "Why the  _hell_ would I do that? You…  _idiot_. That would  _completely_ counteract every point I'm trying to make."

He lowered the weapon, actually looking a bit guilty. He wouldn't look at her now. He placed the gun back on the counter and stared at it with this strange kind of sadness. "I can't believe…" she trailed off, the pieces clicking in her mind. "I might have once spied on you, but that doesn't mean that I'd…"

"I don't know that," he muttered, finally letting his eyes rest on her. "I don't know anything about you anymore, Haruhi."

She let out a deep breath slowly and cleared her thoughts quickly. "I brought this ," she wiggled the huge file folder in her hand a bit, knowing he'd recognize it as her case file on him. "It's everything that I have on you. _Everything_. I deleted all the electronic copies of it, so this is all I have left."

"What about Interpol's files?"

"I'm working on getting someone to hack in and delete them too. They don't have nearly as much as I do though." She offered him a small smile that he didn't return. She walked to his fireplace and placed the folder into it. A matchbox appeared in her hand from her bag, a single match striking it and falling on top of the folder. She watched to make sure it caught fire properly before standing. "I don't want it. Any of it."

He didn't say anything for a while then said, "You're throwing away your entire career."

"I don't care. I don't want the job if you're going to be angry at me for it. Or if you aren't going to trust me because of it. I don't want it if you won't be part of my life. I don't even want the fame of catching you anymore because it's nothing compared to actually  _having_ you  _with_ me." She paused and watched her fingers fiddle with the matchbox in her hands for a moment. "That day right before my birthday when you asked me to go on vacation with you… You said I was practically crying. And that's because I was trying to decide if you were more important to me than the job. You are. That entire vacation I was trying to block out the real world because I didn't want it to exist anymore. If only to extend our time together. That's why the twins' showed up. That's why you found that folder. The real world got tired of me ignoring it and it decided to take it out on you - on us.

"I really don't expect you to come back. In fact, I don't blame you if you don't. But I needed you to know this. It was real. What we had… It was real. I love you. And I'm incredibly sorry that it turned out like this. I didn't want you hurt. I never wanted either of us hurt-"

"Stop," he said abruptly, looking away from her again with that pained look in his eye. "Please. Just stop."

She did, slipping the matchbox back in her bag and looking at him. He looked like he was about to cry or something, but she knew that was absurd because Kyoya never cried. He rarely even showed his emotions past that which someone close to him might be able to read in his eyes.

He opened his mouth again after a few seconds. "Get out," he said softly, eyes staying on his hand braced on the counter, fingertips just centimeters from the handle of the gun laying there.

"What about Kuze?"

"I'll think about it… Just... get out."

"Okay," she mumbled, striding straight toward the door. She glanced back at him before she exited, noting that a hand had risen to his forehead. She bit her lip in worry and kept going.

At least he'd listened to her.

~o~

It had only been a week since Haruhi had been there. Her mere presence had been draining. He wanted to hate her so much but somehow he just…  _didn't_. He guessed that it was because of everything that she had said that night in his apartment. The way she had been so gentle. He scratched his forehead and leaned his elbows on his office desk.

His thoughts were everywhere but the workplace.

He simply could not think about anything but her.

What the hell had she done to him?

He shook his head and pressed the enter key on his keyboard to wake up the computer, determined to get something done today before his father or his brother had a fit about something or another.

Fate seemed to be against him today.

A set of red-headed twins, whom he recognized from both the files he had on them and their visit to Haruhi's apartment, came barging into his office right when he thought he was about to start working again. "I haven't come to a conclusion yet," he stated, jaw set.

To his surprise, they looked confused, annoyed even. His surprise doubled when Tamaki came in huffing.

He scowled. He really  _did_ need a secretary. A secretary would have prevented them from just running in and creating chaos in his office. The twins shook their heads after giving each other a look. "We don't know what you're talking about," one said.

"We need your help. Haruhi's been taken," the other said, his face all business.

Kyoya's frown deepened as he looked to his second-in-command. "I was about to come up here to tell you the same thing," Tamaki stated. "Haruhi's gone. They somehow drugged Lucienne and took Haruhi while she was knocked out."

"We don't have time for this," the twins were practically tearing their hair out. "Will you help us get her back?"

Kyoya ignored them for now, zeroing in on Tamaki. "Who took her?"

Tamaki stared at him like it was the most obvious answer in the world. Kyoya felt dread begin to pool in the center of his stomach.

"Kuze."


	5. Catching On

Haruhi should have realized it when she no longer heard Lucienne sneaking behind her. No longer saw flashes of blonde hair out of the corner of her eye. But somehow, she just figured that the assassin had been pulled back by Kyoya for some other job that was more useful than stalking her.

However, when she heard the rustle of fabric and someone grab her wrist, she just smiled and turned, unaware of what would possibly happen next. "What do you need, Luc-"

She stared at the man who was obviously  _not_ Lucienne. The gun in her face. The hand on her arm. The serious no-funny-business attitude of the man belonging to it. She glanced between the gun, hand, and his face quickly before making an autopilot decision using her Interpol training.

She twisted her arm around simultaneously with twisting her body away from him and flipped him straight over her back. She turned and ran in the opposite direction, which admittedly, was not very fast. Running had never been her forte. She ran a corner and spotted Luceinne lying on the ground - unconscious.

What kind of nightmare was this? Lucienne was a trained assassin.  _No one_ could get the jump on her.

There was a man kneeling next to her, a smirk on his lips. Haruhi's eyes widened as he looked up at her and stood quickly. She ran.

A gun fired behind her, she instinctively swerved left, running down the street as fast as she possibly could.

A second shot. She swerved right, feeling the sting of a bullet grazing against her left calf.

"He wants her  _alive_!" someone yelled. One more bullet. She didn't even hear the gun fire through her heart pounding in her ears. All she felt was the pain in her left leg, the scrape of pavement on her hands as knees as she tumbled to the ground. The dizziness that came with knocking her head against the sidewalk. The spots appearing in front of her eyes.

Hazy, unclear voices.

"What… killed her?!"

"I… aiming… feet."

"What do… blonde?"

"Leave… He… her."

Darkness.

~o~

Kyoya stared at the Tamaki and the twins. "And?" he prompted, sitting back in his chair and folding his hands in his lap. "What do you expect me to do about it?"

The twins gapped at him. Tamaki took a step back then narrowed his eyes at her. "You don't care at all?" the blonde asked. The Ohtori simply shrugged and turned his eyes back to his computer screen. "Kyoya, Haruhi's been kidnapped by Kuze. Your arch-nemesis has taken  _Haruhi_. He  _drugged_ my wife. Isn't that overstepping some kind of  _line_? Who knows what the hell he's doing to her?"

Kyoya gritted his teeth, trying to tell himself he didn't care. That this meant nothing. She wasn't part of his life anymore and she didn't matter. If Kuze had her, it was her own fault. It had nothing to do with him. "If she's been kidnapped, that's her own fault."

"Kyoya!" Tamaki exclaimed as the twins rushed forward, one taking him by the collar and the other pointing a finger in his face.

"Listen here, you bastard!" Hikaru yelled, fist tightening on the Ohtori's collar. "She is our  _best friend_."

"And she was kidnapped because of  _you_."

"How is this my fault?" he asked coolly, not at all reacting to the aggression toward him. "You're the Interpol agents. If anything, I believe he kidnapped her in order to ensure that she does not attempt to come after him in her investigation as she told me she intended to."

Hikaru's face started turning red with rage. Tamaki pulled him away quickly before he could deck the CEO of KOMSS. "He took her because he thinks she means something to  _you_! Because she's in love with  _you_!" the older twin shouted.

"She only intends to go after Kuze instead because she doesn't want you to end up in prison," Kaoru said evenly, staring Kyoya in the eye.

" _Mon ami_ … You can't say that you don't care at all." Kyoya snorted and removed himself from both twins, seating himself back at his desk. "Kyoya! Stop lying to yourself and listen to me! You are in love with Haruhi! I can see it! Lucienne can see it! Your sister can see it! Now open your eyes and accept it!"

"She lied to me, Tamaki!"

"And?" the blonde retorted incredulously, "Is lying to you such a horrible offense that she deserves to be at mercy of the hands of Takeshi Kuze? Get off your high horse,  _Mon ami_. You've done your fair share of lying to her. And you and I both know that Kuze is probably torturing her right now. He's always been obsessed with beating you."

Kyoya stared out the window of his office in thought. "Lucienne and I are going after her, whether you are or not," Tamaki said after several minutes. He motioned toward the twins and turned to the door.

Kyoya stood abruptly. "No."

"What?" Hikaru was even more enraged now. "He's not some child you can-"

"No. None of you are going. I will handle Kuze. This is a war between he and I, not anyone else."

Tamaki broke out in a grin.

~o~

Haruhi had no idea where she was when she woke up. She could feel the rope she was bound with rubbing against her wrists and ankles. The knot on the side of her head throbbed. There was a burning feeling in her left calf. She was surrounded in darkness and silence.

Light flooded her vision, enraging her head and forcing her to shut her eyes.

"Well, well. The sleeping Princess has awoken." The smell of oranges overwhelmed her senses and stung at her eyes. She squinted up at the voice, seeing nothing but the outline of a man.

She'd only met him once, but that one encounter still struck her with more fear than she'd ever experienced on the job. "What do you want, Kuze?" she croaked, keeping her head bent to keep it from hurting any more than it already did.

"Right to business, eh, Miss Fujioka? Kyoya really has rubbed off on you." He was right next to her in seconds, causing her heart rate to skyrocket in five seconds flat. "Don't you want to have some fun first?"

"Do you want to have seven different agencies on you in a heartbeat?" she hissed back menacingly. "You've kidnapped an Interpol agent. They will not take kindly to that." A knife blade pressed to her cheek. She bit her tongue and glared at him out of the corner of her eye.

"I'd watch your mouth if I were you, Fujioka. Wouldn't want to hurt Kyoya's precious flower, would I?" He clicked his tongue once and withdrew, hands finding her shoulders and rubbing a bit too enthusiastically for her taste. "You asked me what I want," he stated, ramming one of her pressure points with his thumb. She bit back a cry. "I want to  _finally_ beat Kyoya Ohtori. I want him at my mercy, begging at my feet for your life. I want the satisfaction of putting a bullet in your brain first and then his. But first, I want every bit of information that you have on my  _business rival_  so that I can watch his business plummet until he has no credibility left."

His hands left her shoulders and his body swung around the chair to look her in the eye. "What do you say?"

She stared at him with every ounce of resentment and spite she had in her. "Go to hell," she spat in his face.

"I had hoped that you'd be more cooperative," he said in disappointment. Another spot light clicked on, this time over a table covered in every torture device imaginable. "Let's start it simple, shall we?"

~o~

Kyoya entered the retired warehouse with a single pistol in hand. It was lucky he knew that Kuze had a preference for darkened warehouses where he could easier hide extra men, otherwise he never would have found him. It was quiet. Dark. Everything that unsettled him when it came to dealing with Takeshi Kuze.

Everything that Kuze liked to use to unsettle him.

He gritted his teeth and swallowed back any nerves. There was a faster way to do this than to search the entire building single-handedly in the dark with only a pistol and flashlight as protection.

"KUZE!" he roared, his voice bouncing off the walls and reflecting back to him. He was met with more silence.

~o~

Her scream was like music to his ears. "Now, tell me again what I want to know?"

Nothing but sobs blubbered from her lips. Tears ran down her cheeks. Blood pooled on the floor below her arms. "He'll never come," she choked out, pain turning her vision red. "He'll never come for me. He'll never beg for my life. He'll never do anything that you think he will. He hates me."

"I highly doubt that, Miss Fujioka. Now, what was that you were going to tell me about Kyoya?"

"I don't know anything!" she cried.

Kuze clicked his tongue in impatience and disappointment. "Now I  _know_ you're lying."

She screamed again, her legs bouncing in an effort to try and run as another deep cut from the serrated blade in his hand met her collarbone. "Please," she sobbed, "Please, I swear. I don't know anything."

"You were his secretary for a year and a half! You  _spied_ on him for Interpol for a year and a half. You have to know  _something_."

"I burned all my files on him! I don't know! Please!"

His fingers grabbed her chin, forcing her to look him straight in the eye. "Well then. I'll just have to keep doing this until it refreshes your memory. Or until he comes. Whichever comes first."

~o~

"I KNOW YOU'RE HERE KUZE! SHOW YOURSELF!"

Again there was silence and the echoes of his own yells.

But wait…

He strained her ears, listening intently for any kind of response.

There was a muffled sob coming from off to his right. He followed it, raising his flashlight to see where he was going. A chair came into sight. The shaking shoulders of a person. The sobs were coming from them. It could only be one person.

"Haruhi?"

Her head lifted, turning and trying to see him as he walked around the chair. He took in the sight of her. The bleeding gashes along her cheeks, arms, and shoulders. The blood pooling around her feet. Her red-soaked white shirt with the top button undone. Blood matted the tips of her brunette hair. Her eyes were red from crying. He felt his heart stop for a second, rage entering his veins.

"No," she moaned, voice scratchy. "No. You weren't supposed to come. You were supposed to stay away." More sobs shook her shoulders, her head bent again, this time in sorrow. He squatted in front of her, setting his gun on the floor. "NO!" she screamed, "DON'T PUT THAT DOWN." Startled, he picked it back up.

"Haruhi…?" he trailed off questioningly.

"Leave," she stated in a torn voice, "Get out, Kyoya. Now." He shook his head, not understanding. "GO AWAY." He still didn't move, instead trying to untie her hands. "DON'T YOU GET IT? HE WANTS  _YOU_!" The tears poured down her face. "He never wanted me. He just wanted to use me to get to you. You weren't supposed to come. GET OUT OF HERE. GET OUT BEFORE HE-"

"How rude of you, Haruhi. Screaming at a guest. The guest of honor even." Kyoya jumped back to his feet, his gun aimed straight at Kuze's head. Haruhi's sobs increased exponentially. He held an orange to his lips, inhaled the aroma that was slowly making Haruhi sick to her stomach. "I told you didn't I, though? I told you he'd come for you."

"You sick bastard," she hissed in return.

"Oh and Kyoya, put down the gun. It  _really_ won't do you any good," Kuze continued ignoring her. Haruhi let out a scream of frustration, stomping her feet against the ground. "Haruhi!" Kuze reprimanded, "Be careful or you'll set off the bomb!" Kyoya's eyes shot straight from Kuze to his former girlfriend.

"What?" he whispered, eyes searching her for any sign of a bomb. His eyes met hers for a split second and she looked away.

"Unbutton my shirt," she replied in a defeated whisper. Kyoya shot a look at Kuze and knelt in front of her, lowering his gun. His fingers carefully and gently unbuttoned the next two buttons of her shirt, revealing the bomb strapped to her chest. He stared at it for several seconds, swearing under his breath. Tears leaked out Haruhi's eyes.

"Oh that isn't even the best part!" Kuze exclaimed in delight. Kyoya turned back around and stood, finding Kuze holding a remote in a gloved hand.

"Oh really?" Kyoya retorted snidely, "How about the part where I put a bullet in your brain like I should have done  _years_ ago? I think  _that's_ the best part!" He raised his gun again.

Kuze held the remote above his head. "No, no, Kyoya! Wouldn't want to blow up Haruhi, would you?" A steady beeping started coming from Haruhi. She looked up at Kyoya in a slight panic. "Hand it over." Kuze held out his other hand. Kyoya noted that it, too, was gloved. Takeshi wiggled the remote again. The Ohtori shut his eyes for a minute and begrudgingly handed the weapon over to him.

He smirked at him and circled the couple slowly, keeping the gun that Kyoya had carried in aimed at its former owner's head. "Now… Allow me to explain what's happening here." Kuze strode to stand in front of the bespectacled Ohtori, sticking his face right in his and staring at him with all the hate he could. "Kyoya… Is going to blow up lovely Haruhi here."

The remote was placed in his hand. Kyoya let out a bark of laugher. "You're insane if you think that I'm going to do any such thing." He kept a firm grip on the remote anyway, making sure that his fingers didn't go anywhere near the detonation button.

"Oh, but you  _will_  whether you know it or not." Kuze's cackling laughter filled the air. "You see… There is a timer on that bomb as well. Set for 10 minutes. And when that timer reaches zero… The bomb will explode and erase all evidence of there ever being a timer, leaving the remote in  _your_ hand as the only detonation device available."

Kyoya was slowly seeing how all of this connected. "You really shouldn't have been so harsh on Miss Fujioka here when you found out she was spying on you. Because now  _all of Interpol_ knows that you hate her. And they know that you would do  _anything_ to keep her from bringing down your business."

"The courts will never buy that. Not if Haruhi testifies."

Kuze groaned dramatically. "You aren't getting it, Ohtori… Haruhi is not  _going_ to testify. Because she is not going to be  _alive_.  _You_ are going to kill her. Just like you ordered Lucienne to do if she came anywhere near you."

Everything clicked into place. "You set this entire thing up to make me look like the bad guy."

"It doesn't help that you came in here alone and with a gun. In fact, I should have just let you kill me. That would have just been icing on the top of your sentence."

Kyoya's jaw clenched. "But then you wouldn't be able to see me destroyed."

"Exactly! The boy's catching on!"

"Tamaki, Hikaru, Kaoru, and Lucienne won't let me go to jail for your crime, Kuze."

"They won't be testifying either!" Kuze sang in a delighted voice. His eyes just  _sparkled_ with sadistic amusement at this entire situation. "See. I've already told Lucienne that if she tries to interfere with  _anything_ then her daughter and/or husband will die. And Agents Hikaru and Kaoru? They will soon be informed that their little sister and parents will be in grave danger if they try anything."

Haruhi let out a soft cry of disgust. "You bastard," she growled. "You're a bloody  _bastard_!"

"You shouldn't have burned those files, Miss Fujioka!" Kuze yelled back at her. Haruhi sat back, glaring at him from afar, her entire body practically on fire. "Now. I'll be leaving. Your ten minutes are now  _five_. Kyoya, you can either chase after me and leave her to die when your time is up, or you can stay and try to futilely defuse the bomb, killing both of you when it blows up. Your choice, Mr. Ohtori."

Kyoya glared after him as he turned and left. Tears ran down Haruhi's cheeks. The Ohtori turned back and knelt beside her, untying her hands and holding them in his. "You're made of tougher stuff than this," he murmured, squeezing her hand.

"Why are you here?" she asked spitefully, turning her glare on him and yanking her hands out of his grasp. "Why did you come?"

"I-"

"You were supposed to stay away! That's what you wanted! You didn't want anything to do with me!"

"I wouldn't have even known if it weren't for the Hitachiins and Tamaki. Besides, you were so insistent that I should forgive you."

"So this is  _my_ fault? How was I supposed to-?"

"Haruhi, shut up." His face was centimeters from hers in a single second. Her eyes softened, tears welling up in them again.

"Everything hurts," she murmured.

"I know. Talking about it isn't going to stop anything though."

"You should go after him."

"Going after him will not help my situation. Only saving  _you_ will stop anything. Because only a living  _you_ can testify against my guilt in any of this."

"Is that all I'm good for?" she muttered.

"No. Not at all."

"Go after Kuze, Kyoya," she stated, staring him in the eyes and radiating sad confidence.

"You'll die if I do that."

"Leave the remote here. It will be destroyed too. And even if it isn't, then it being here and you not being here will be proof enough that you are not responsible." He looked at her. She was willing to give up her own life just to prove that he was not guilty? "I will not allow you to go to prison over something like my death. If I am going to die here, I sure as hell am going to do everything in my power to make sure that you aren't blamed for it."

"Haruhi…" he trailed off, for once completely lost for words.

"Go," she whispered. "If he gets away… It will all be for nothing."

"I don't-"

"Go, Kyo-chan." Another voice had joined them. Kyoya hadn't even heard them coming. He shined his flashlight at up Hunny and Mori. He nearly sighed with relief. Mori was a bomb expert.

"Who called you?" he asked, standing but keeping hold of Haruhi's hand. He glanced at the small red time that was counting down each second until the bomb on her chest went off.

_3:55. 3:54. 3:53._

"Tamaki," Mori stated simply.

"For once, that idiot did something right," Kyoya muttered. "Please defuse it."

"We'll try, Kyo-chan. Go." Hunny handed him a utility belt full of flash grenades and a gun.

He nodded and started to walk away, stopping and turning back. "Haruhi… I…"

"I know," she murmured, giving him a small smile. "Go get him."

~o~

He was tired of this stupid game that Kuze was playing with him. He never won and frankly, he was surprised that the man hadn't just given up and found something else to do with his life. He was tired of confronting, re-confronting, and running. This was going to end tonight. These threats to the wellbeing of those closest to him. The monstrous jokes. All of it was going to end if it was the last thing he did.

If he was going to take him out, Kyoya was going to take Kuze out with him.

He stalked around the warehouse, gun at his side, fiery murder in his eyes. This was unforgivable. This…  _kidnapping, framing, murder_  was unforgivable. It didn't suit a simply childhood rivalry - which was how this had all begun.

"Come on, Kuze," he called, "If you're going to make me choose between saving Haruhi and chasing after you, you could at least make finding you a little easier for me."

"Don't I even get a please anymore, Kyoya?" came the replying sneer.

"No. I'm done with being polite," he snarled, squinting through the dark to find the man that owned the voice.

Like magic, a single row of lights came on in the very middle of the warehouse, leaving darkened gaps between pools of light on the floor.

Kuze was still nowhere that he could see. He growled under his breath and kept walking, gazing up at the walkways in the rafters just in case.

"Poor Haruhi will die all alone, looks like. And  _you'll_ be the one blamed!"

"Wrong," Kyoya stated, a smirk falling on his face as he caught sight of that hideous orange hair.

"Oh?" He fired a bullet at the head, missing by several inches. Kuze, as per usual made a tsking sound with his tongue. "Didn't I already say that killing me would not get you anywhere?"

Kyoya let out a short bark of laughter and dropped his gun hand to his side again, shrugging lightly. "I don't care about killing you anymore, Takeshi," he stated, using the man's first name for the first time in years. "I just want it to stop. I don't even remember how we got like this. Do you?" He tossed the gun onto the floor. He was the bigger man in this apparently. He was going to have to be the one that pushed the change.

The man stepped out into the light, eyes narrowed at him suspiciously. "You know… By my calculations… Your love should be exploding in about-" he paused long enough to check his watch, "Five… Four…"

"Just shut up," Kyoya snapped.

"Three… Two…"

Kyoya's fear mounted, waiting to hear the explosion when Kuze said one that would mean that Haruhi was dead.

"One."

Nothing. No enormous explosion. Kyoya looked behind him, to the other end of the huge warehouse, where he could just barely make out the form of the chair Haruhi was in. Hunny and Mori were nowhere to be seen.

And then, right when he was thinking,  _Good… They did it… They got her safe_ , sight became fire; sound became thunderous earthquakes; scents became burning wood, metal, was that  _flesh_?

It died down and he stared at the other end of the building, unable to contain his despair. Then he realized he'd been holding his breath and sucked in a deep, desperate breath. He had failed. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he had failed.

He heard a cackle of triumph and turned wearily to face the man it belonged to. "Now you understand, don't you, Kyoya? How this all started?"

Hell, he couldn't remember. He couldn't even think. He felt numb. Number than he had felt even when his grandfather had died. He kept his features carefully schooled, unwilling to show just how much the recent development had affected him.

"You don't?" Kuze questioned with surprise. "Allow me to explain… You…  _took_ my fiancée away from me. And now, I have taken the woman that you love in return."

Kyoya scowled and tried to think back to when they were children, middle school kids, teenagers. Who had been his fiancée? He'd been engaged at one point, he knew that. Why couldn't he remember her name?

"Her name was Kimi."

That was right. Kimi Nekura. His frown deepened. "She's still alive, Takeshi." Something in his chest ached. Dear God, was that his heart? Really? How cliché. He'd only done this to make sure that she was safe. Because no one should have to suffer at Takeshi Kuze's hands over something that he had apparently done.

"You stole her from me, Ohtori."

He thought for a moment then shook his head, not quite believing his own thoughts… It couldn't be… "You think I'm the reason that she left you?" Kuze sneered at him with as much hate as Kyoya was sure that he held for him. "You did that  _yourself,_ Kuze. You  _let_ her leave you. You  _frightened_ her. I didn't  _need_ to do anything, even if I had wanted to."

"You flirted with her constantly."

"I can't help that I was attractive to her. And I was not flirting with her." Kyoya glared at him.

"I saw you-"

"I was dating Tamaki. All through high school," he cut in, "Just a year and a half after I met him. Why would I steal your fiancée away from you, Kuze? You just want a reason to hate me. To blame someone else for what _you_ did."

"Sto-"

" _You_ drove her away!  _You_ did it, Kuze! I had nothing to do with it!" He stopped abruptly and shook his head. "I had nothing to do with it… And you… You killed Haruhi. For  _no reason_."

"You always had to be better than me!" Kuze roared. "Always going on about your little  _club_ and how  _fantastic_ you ran it. You and your little  _boyfriend_ and your perfect little relationship!"

"It was far from perfect," Kyoya commented offhandedly.

"I don't care," Kuze said coldly. " _I'm sick of it._ You know… My father once told me that he wished that I was more like  _you_."

"It would be quite an eye-awakening change. Maybe even good for you." Kuze had a gun. Kyoya knew he had a gun because he had given it to him. He could see a gun-shaped bulge sticking out of the back of his pants. He didn't care anymore about killing or being killed. He just wanted to get Kuze to draw the gun on him. To put his fingerprints on it.

"Shut up! You think you're so  _perfect_. Well look who's finally won. Look who's finally beaten you." Finally, the gun came out and pressed against the side of his head. Kyoya didn't react at all to being put at gunpoint.

He just stared Kuze in the eye. "Is this how you killed my grandfather? Or were you too much of a coward then to stare  _him_ in the eye?"

"Are those really the last words you want to say to me, Ohtori?"

Kyoya smirked. "You lost. You think you won, but ultimately, you lost. No one will  _ever_ trust you. You will  _never_ have a single friend or loved one because you will  _never_ be able to come back from this, Takeshi. You will _never_ beat me."

"I've already won," Kuze stated, hand tensing.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice from the shadows interrupted. Kuze snapped his head around to watch as a woman limped into the light.

"How…?" he gasped.

"Takeshi Kuze, you're currently surrounded by three Interpol agents and four of their very generous friends. And considering what we just got on tape, I suggest that you lower your weapon."

"Haruhi?" Kyoya whispered, awe present in his voice.

She stood in front of them, completely unscathed by the bomb. The lights in the entire warehouse turned on, showing that what she said was true. Circling them were Hikaru, Kaoru, Lucienne, Tamaki, Hunny, and Mori, all with loaded weapons except Haruhi who merely held a tape recorder in her hand. "Oh," she added icily, "And those seven agencies that I mentioned earlier? They're all on their way. And trust me, they'd  _love_ to get a piece of you."

Kyoya felt relief wash through his body as Kuze stared at her, not lowering his weapon, just staring at her. "How?"

"Simple. Mori defused the timer but not the detonator. We simply had to get me out of and away from the vest before we blew it with the remote control." A smirk that could rival Kyoya's came to her face. "Who won, exactly?"

Kuze ground his teeth together, gritting them until Kyoya almost thought that he was going to make his own jaw pop off. Haruhi predicted his move 5 seconds before he did it. "Kyoya, move!" she screamed. Kyoya dove sideways, feeling the bullet clip his shoulder instead of his head. He gasped out in pain as he fell to the ground, hearing several different guns fire at the same time, tearing Kuze apart.

The red-head fell to the ground dead and Haruhi limp-ran forward.

" _Mon ami!_ " Tamaki yelled, dropping his gun and striding forward.

"Haru-chan!" Hunny exclaimed, "Don't move so fast! You're still weak!"

She fell to her knees next to him. His back arched upwards. He had to move just to deal with the pain erupting in his shoulder.

Lucienne walked forward calmly and looked down at Takeshi Kuze for a moment with disgust. She bent down and felt for a pulse in his neck then looked toward the twins. "Gone. Though I suppose that five bullets will do that to a person." Just one from her would have done the trick.

She went to Kyoya next and ripped open his shirt, revealing the bullet proof vest underneath. "Damn," she whispered when she noticed that there was blood everywhere. The shot had missed the vest completely and embedded itself in his left shoulder. He let out a loud groan. Haruhi took his hand weakly and squeezed. "Oh stop being such a baby," Lucienne grumbled, taking off her jacket and pressing it to his shoulder.

"You try getting shot, Lucienne!" the Ohtori snapped. She looked at him pointedly. Oh right… She had been. Several times.

Haruhi felt faint, she didn't know why but she did. She looked toward the twins. "Guys…" she said a bit breathlessly, taking deep breaths to attempt to ward off the unpleasant feeling that she was either about to pass out or puke. Hikaru and Kaoru looked at her worriedly.

"Haruhi?" Kyoya was the one to question her on it. His grip tightened on her hand, a grunt popping from his mouth as the Frenchwoman pressed a bit harder on his wound.

"I feel…" she didn't finish. Just lay down slowly before she fell down.

Hunny scowled at her as she succumbed to the darkness and said, "I  _told_ her not to move so fast!"

"She lost a lot of blood," Mori added solemnly, a frown of his own on his lips.

Lucienne growled under her breath. "Kyoya, you may not like it, but you need to go to the hospital.  _Now_."

"No."

"Kyoya. I don't have a choice. I don't have this kind of medical expertise and Akito's too far away right now. You  _both_ need to get to a hospital."

"I don't…" He let out a cry as she pressed his shoulder sharply.

" _Mon ami…_ " Tamaki muttered, "It's probably best to just do what my wife says…"

Kyoya glared at him and submitted a bit reluctantly. He didn't want Haruhi's life on his hands. Especially if she died over something as silly as him not allowing them to go to a hospital. He looked at Hikaru and Kaoru, "You'll wait here, I assume?" They nodded, though a single glance at Haruhi told Kyoya that they were incredibly reluctant to leave their friend. He nodded at them in respect and looked to Mori, who effortlessly picked Haruhi up. Tamaki helped him up.

Her hand pulled loose from his and suddenly he felt like he might collapse again. Hunny hurried forward and supported his left side while Tamaki took his left. Lucienne tried her best to keep pressure on his wound while they moved.

~o~

He sat by her bed. He didn't know why he was there watching her sleep. Some unknown force had pulled him straight to her room the moment that he'd been released from the hospital - thankfully it was one of his family's so the damage control for this wouldn't be too bad.

Perhaps it was some remainder of his feelings for her lingering that had drawn him here. Perhaps Lucienne had been on to something when she mentioned closure. He didn't know. He didn't care.

He just knew that the moment her eyes opened to look at him, blinking groggy sleepiness from her eyes, an immense relief filled his chest. She looked confused for a moment. "Why…?"

_Why are you here?_

The question remained in her eyes even after everything that had happened in the last 48 hours. He chuckled darkly and murmured, "Honestly? I don't really know."

"How long was I out?"

"About… 18 hours or so. Give or take 2 hours."

She looked at his arm, which hung in a sling uselessly. She raised an eyebrow. "You were… shot?"

"Yes," he replied stiffly, "As I remember, you were the one that saved my life."

"How?"

Did she really not remember this? Though she  _had_ been slightly disoriented due to blood loss. "Kuze had the gun pointed at my head, Haruhi. You saw the shot coming and screamed at me to move just in time."

She stared at him. "Do you have any idea what he did to me?"

"Yes."

"Do you really?" She suddenly sounded so… broken. "I was trained to withstand torture… But I was never prepared to actually have to. And that…  _monster_ … He-"

"Haruhi, I've seen what he can do," Kyoya cut off quickly, not wanting to hear it. "Especially when he wants something." He looked away from me.

"You say I saved your life but you still won't look me in the eye." He sighed and leaned his head back, closing his eyes for a moment of thought. "Why are you here?"

"I needed to know you were alright."

"Why? Do you forgive me? Do you still love me? Is that what this is about?"

"I don't know." He was frustrated with her.  _She_ had pushed for this.  _She_ had been the one that insisted that he rethink leaving her. Why was she questioning his presence? She should have been happy that he was even visiting her.

"Why did you save me?"

"Because no one deserves to be placed in the mercy of Takeshi Kuze. That man… He holds no mercy. He would have killed you before letting you free."

"So you do care…"

"No. That's not what I said." She raised an eyebrow. He let out a short breath. "Haruhi… I…" he stopped and thought of the best way to word what he wanted to say. He lifted his head and stared at the opposing wall. "You… You broke my heart. I don't -  _can't_ \- trust you." He turned his head and looked at her. She looked sad for a moment then her eyes hardened slightly and she nodded in understanding.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. It must have been the millionth time he'd heard it from her, but it was the first that she had sounded completely, utterly sincere and so…  _sorrowful_. "I didn't… I never meant for it to go that far. I fell in love with you when I knew I shouldn't have. And… I'm sorry I ever thought of doing that to you."

He shrugged. "I was also at fault," he murmured. "I shouldn't have used my charms on you like that. Though, I never expected to be hurt by it."

She smiled and shook her head at his slight attempt at a joke. "You know… I still love you…" she trailed off and let her smile fade as she looked up at him.

He stared at her then rose slowly. "Well… I can obviously see that you're fine. I should be going." He walked quickly to the door but in the doorway at her voice.

"Will I ever see you again or are you going to disappear off the map as you're so well known to do?"

"I'm not sure," he replied without turning around. "Perhaps we will. I'd appreciate a heads up if Interpol is ever going to come knocking on my door again." He began to move forward but was again stopped by the brunette's question.

"Kyoya?"

"Yes?"

"If we ever meet again… Is it possible that we could start over? Could we pretend that we never knew each other before?"

He turned slowly to face her, thinking. The possibility of running into her again was low. And even if she did then it probably wouldn't be for a long time. "I suppose so. Are you going to come searching for me, Haruhi?"

"I don't know yet. Maybe later… In the future. A year or two. Not now though. You can rest easy and do whatever it is that you do."

He smirked. "Alright. Perhaps I'll see you in the future then, Haruhi."

"I will gladly await that day."

He left the hospital with a smile curling on his lips.

~o~

_2 years later…_

He wouldn't have normally ridden the train, but his car had broken down, stranding him with no other way to get to a very important meeting. It was more crowded than he would have liked, but it was transportation nonetheless.

Someone tapped his shoulder and he turned to look down on a small brunette woman with stunning amber eyes. He felt himself start to smile in disbelief but stopped, remembering he request to pretend like they didn't know each other. "Yes?"

"You dropped this," she stated, placing a card in his hand. He nodded at her in thanks and began to turn again, just to humor her. "Have we met before?"

He looked at her curiously. "I'm… not sure. Your name is?"

"Haruhi Fujioka."

"Ah… I knew a Haruhi once."

"Did you?" she said, a small smile playing on her lips.

"I keep wondering how long it's going to take her to track me down."

"Why would she need to track you?"

He shrugged. "I don't think she really needs to anymore…"

"What was your name again?"

"Kyoya Ohtori." He said the name with confidence in the future.

Their future.


End file.
